The Madras High Court on Friday temporarily stayed the single judge's (Justice PT Asha) order that directed the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to provide certification to Tamil film 'Jana Nayagan', according to a report by Live Law.
In its order, the division bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan stated, "Respondent Union of India was not given sufficient time..one main grievance of UoI was that they were not given time to reply. Another grievance is that letter dated January 6 was not challenged, but court (single judge) quashed it. Respondents argue that there was no urgency... All said and done there was no certificate granted to respondents."
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Those present for the hearing on Friday included Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General AR L Sundaresan for CBFC and advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Sathish Parasaran for producers KVN Productions.
The CBFC representatives argued that after Justice PT Asha's judgement, they weren't given ample time to file a counter affidavit while also adding that Justice PT Asha had quashed the CBFC Chairman's order, even though the appeal was not filed for that reason.
Production house's argument
The representatives of the production house stated that the film was certified UA 16+ on December 22 and the required edits needed for certification were done on December 29.
Advocate Mukul Rohtagi said that the movie was to be released on January 9. "However, the court orally remarked that the producers could have waited for the certificate," he said according to Live Law report.
What was the urgency, asks court
However, the Chief Justice argued that when certification had not been issued, the release date should never have been announced.
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Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava questioned the producer's move to create a false sense of urgency by announcing the film's release date even though the certification was issued.
"You're creating an urgency and putting pressure on court. False state of urgency is being created saying that 'we have to release the movie on such date'...6th January order is not under challenge and it has been challenged. How can you go ahead with the release of the movie without even a certificate on hand? You can't fix a date (for release) and put pressure on the system," the court said.
Next date of hearing on...
In the end, the Madras High stayed the single judge's order. The CBFC has filed for a writ appeal and the next hearing is scheduled for January 21.
Meanwhile, KVN Productions is reportedly filing for an appeal with the Supreme Court on Monday.
