Mumbai: Hearing the plea to release Emergency film, the Bombay High Court on Thursday said creative freedom and the freedom of expression cannot be curtailed and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) cannot refuse to certify a film just because there is an apprehension of a law and order problem.
Senior lawyer Venkatesh Dhond, representing the film’s producer, argued that the CBFC was intentionally dragging the release of the film until after the October 5 Haryana Assembly elections. The court expressed its displeasure with CBFC for not deciding on the issuance of a certificate to Kangana Ranaut-starrer Emergency, and ordered for the decision to be taken by September 25.
A division bench of Justices B P Colabawalla and Firdosh Pooniwalla also asked if the CBFC thinks the people of this country are so naive as to believe everything shown in a movie.
“The co-producer (Ranaut) is a BJP MP and they (party) do not want a film which hurts the sentiments of certain communities by a BJP member.”
In response, Justice Colabawalla queried if the delay in release “will affect the voting decision of people voting for BJP?”
“Why would someone ruling in a state want to thwart the film made by their own member? Had it been that the state was ruled by some other opposition party, we could have considered it.”
Further accusing the BJP, the lawyer said, “All this is happening at the behest of the ruling party (BJP) in the Centre. They are looking at their overall interests and thus don’t want this film to be released.”
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