The Censor Board has been slammed by the CAG for flouting several norms that led to irregular conversion of 'A' category Films into 'UA' and 'U' and also for alleged fabrication of documents and favouritism while issuing film certificates.
According to a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) converted 172 'A' category certified films into 'UA' category films and 166 films of 'UA' category into 'U' category films during 2012-15 without taking any law or provision into account which led to irregular conversion of films.
This information was provided by the CAG on the functioning of the Censor Board in its 70-page reply in response to an RTI query by activist Vihar Durve.
Films with a 'U' certificate are considered suitable for unrestricted public exhibition while those with 'UA' certificate contain portions considered unsuitable for children below the age of twelve, but otherwise suitable for unrestricted public exhibition.
'A' category films are considered suitable for exhibition restricted to adults only.
It may be recalled that former Censor Board CEO Rakesh Kumar was arrested by CBI in August 2014 for allegedly demanding Rs 70,000 as bribe for clearing a film.
His predecessor Pankaja Thakur was also involved in a series of controversies including that she rated a film directed by her close relative despite knowing that it was a case of "conflict of interest".
The CAG under the head "Inspection Report on Account Maintained by the office of CBFC, Mumbai" for the period from 1st October 2013 to 31st March 2015, has also slammed the Board for its lackadaisical approach in several areas including incomplete data entry work of historical records despite incurring a huge sum for the purpose of digitisation of CBFC work.
CAG also noted that approximately 4.10 lakh entries for censor certificates and 60 lakh pages of feature film files were yet to be digitised despite incurring huge sum for the purpose.
"There has been no revision of certification fees and cess after the lapse of more than six years and 12 years respectively. It has mentioned in its report that the CBFC got Rs 14 crore (approx) as certification fees from 2011 to 2013 while it received Rs 5.5 crore as cess in the same period, says the report.
CAG has also found that as per official records two movies naming "Gabriel" and "Three Can Play That Game" were examined by Mrs J S Mahamuni and Mr S G Mane on February 2009 and February 2009 respectively.
However, when CBFC issued the certificates it showed that movies were examined by Mrs V K Chawak, Secretary to the Chairperson, on March 30, 2009 and despite that these were not re-applied for re-examination.
Terming this as a scam and naming it as "Censor Gate", Durve strongly criticised the Board.
Censor Board CEO Shravan Kumar could not be contacted as he was in Bangalore.
