HC dismisses plea to revoke Mersal's censor certificate for anti GST dialogues

Observing that a mature democracy should allow views of the minorities also to be expressed, the Madras High Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation petition seeking a direction to Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to revoke the censor certificate issued to Vijay starrer Mersal for its anti GST (Goods and Services Tax) dialogues and scenes mocking the Centre’s digital transaction initiatives.

Justices M.M. Sundresh and M. Sundar refused to entertain the petition filed by advocate A. Ashvathaman of Mylapore here after asking him to stop targeting a particular movie and start spending his time on doing some quality work such as taking steps to close down liquor shops, fighting against untouchability, assisting the physically challenged in establishing their rights and preventing abuse of women and children.

During the course of hearing of the case, Mr. Justice Sundresh told the petitioner that filing of such cases would only help the producers make more money due to the curiosity generated among the people to watch it. When the petitioner claimed that wrong facts on GST were imposed on the audience, the judge said: “Nobody can impose views on others. Ultimately, it is the choice of the viewers to watch a particular movie or not.”

After all, “we are not dealing with a case of extreme vulgarity but for objections raised with regard to certain dialogues in the movie,” the judges said and rejected the PIL petition right at the stage of admission. Further, pointing out that the scope of judicial review in such cases was limited when a statutory body such as CBFC had, in its wisdom, found it fit to issue a censor certificate, the judges said that the petitioner had rushed to the court immediately after giving a representation to CBFC. #casansaar (Source - The Hindu)