HC asks for mechanism to censor TV

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday asked the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to set up a mechanism to censor TV programs, including soaps and movies at its earliest. The division bench of acting Chief Justice H L Gokhale and Justice V M Kanade issued its order while disposing of a PIL filed by social activist Pratibha Naithani, who filed the PIL against telecast of adult films and programs on TV.

In an earlier order, the court had asked cable operators, private TV channels and multi-service operators to ensure that films with ‘A’ certification were not to be telecast on TV. Naithani’s advocate Mukesh Vashi on Thursday argued that all programmes on TV had to be censored under the Cinematograph Act, 1952.

However, the CBFC filed an affidavit saying it did not have enough manpower to censor TV programmes. But Vashi argued this was a legal requirement taking objection particularly to programs like “Baywatch” on Star World and “Sex and the City” on HBO. The court however observed, “Government has more important things to do than censoring TV programmes”, and asked CBFC to take steps to set up a mechanism to censor TV programming.