Allahabad high court seeks information & broadcasting minister Ambika Soni’s reply on PIL seeking ban on ‘lewd’ item numbers.
The information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry will refer the matter relating to a PIL seeking ban on two allegedly lewd Bollywood item numbers to an inter-ministerial panel for its response.
I&B minister Ambika Soni made a statement to this effect in response to reporters’ questions, on the sidelines of an official function in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Significantly, the minister’s response came soon after the Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court asked the Centre on Tuesday to clarify its position on the issues raised in the PIL by social activist Nutan Thakur by Monday next.
“We already have an inter-ministerial panel which handles such issues and any notice from the court would be referred to it,” Ambika Soni told reporters.
The panel set up for screening programmes for viewership acts on the basis of complaints and comprises representatives from the law ministry, women and child development ministry and organisations such as the National Commission for Women (NCW).
In her petition filed on December 23, Thakur has demanded an immediate ban on Bollywood item numbers Munni Badnam Hui from Dabangg and Sheila ki Jawani from Tees Maar Khan contending that they were against public decency and morality.
The petition says that the songs contain indecent and vulgar verbal and visual material which violates provisions of the Cinematography Act, 1952.
In a supplementary affidavit, Thakur has listed at least half a dozen instances with names either Sheila or Munni have been harassed or molested with these songs.
“There have been incidents of violence, eve-teasing, molestation, mental harassment and public/private nuisance, all of grave criminal nature [related to these songs],” the affidavit states.
The PIL mentions the case of two Mumbai sisters Sheila Giri, and Munni Giri, who have been compelled to change their names because of the continued eve-teasing. Thakur told DNA that she spoke to Munni’s husband Nirmal and “he was really pained by the problems this song has created for them”.
She has also referred to Sheila, a young Lucknow student, was so agonised by the eve-teasing that she attempted suicide.
The girl’s father sent an email to Thakur narrating the facts and thanking her for filing the petition.
In a UP village in November, singing of the song Munni Badnaam Hui by one Naresh Soni alias Bacchu angered a shopowner Rajesh Kumar Gupta, whose mother was named Munni. The altercation which followed ended with firing in which an old woman was killed.
Similarly, in Shankarpur village of Ballia in east UP, on the night of December 13, about half a dozen people got injured in firing between two groups over the song Munni Badnaam Hui.
Family members of a girl by that name had resisted the singing of this song by members of a barat (wedding procession).
Besides I&B ministry and the producer and director of the film, the petitioner has also made the censor board a party.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}