CBFC challenges HC order on film on Kashmir violence

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) today challenged in the Delhi High Court its single judge's order directing the censorship body to issue a certificate for public screening, without any cuts, of a documentary on people affected by violence in Kashmir.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said the matter will be heard on July 28 as no lawyer had appeared for CBFC in view of a lawyer's strike in the high court.
The censor board has challenged the high court's May 25 order as well as sought an interim stay on its operation.

On May 25, the single judge had directed CBFC to allow exhibition of the movie, "Textures of Loss", without deletion of any scenes.
CBFC had proposed several cuts in the documentary prior to granting it certification for public viewing.
The high court had also observed that film making was a creative process and neither the tribunal nor the courts can tell a filmmaker how to make a movie.

The order had come on the plea of the documentary's producer, Pankaj Butalia, who had challenged the December 2013 and September 2014 orders of CBFC and the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) which had asked him to cut several scenes.

CBFC, while defending its stand, had termed the scenes it wanted to be deleted as a "powder keg" and had added that it apprehended these could lead to a violent situation.
Meanwhile, Butalia has moved a plea seeking contempt action against CBFC for not complying with the high court's order to certify his film for public screening.