The Gujarat High Court has disposed of a PIL seeking prevention of "obscenity and violence" in Bollywood films saying censoring of such content is under the purview of Central Board of Film Certification.
A division bench of acting Chief Justice V M Sahai and Justice R P Dholaria rejected the PIL yesterday, filed in 2012 by a Surat-based citizen Hemant Jogi, demanding action against makers of "obscene films", and observed "there is a body- Central Board of Film Certification in India--to censor indecent and violent projections in films."
"This is the experts' body which can take the decision to censor the contents of a film while a court of law cannot judge their opinions in this," the bench noted.
Citing films like 'Dirty picture' and 'Jism -2', the petitioner had alleged that such movies show "obscene" content which can spoil adolescent minds.
The petitioner had also demanded a separate censor board for television shows, saying "some TV shows exhibit violence, obscenity and foul language, which cannot be seen with family and those TV shows are not suitable for kids. This needs to be censored by formation of a censor board."
The petitioner contended some TV shows encourage drinking alcohol and smoking as characters acting in them exhibit such action and sought to censor such shows.
However, the HC disposed of the PIL.
