Hearing a petition challenging the selection of 'Eklavya-the Royal Gaurd' to Oscars, the Bombay HC said that the selection would be subjected to the court order.
MUMBAI: Hearing a petition challenging the selection of 'Eklavya-the Royal Gaurd' as India's official entry to Oscars, the Bombay High Court said that the selection would be subjected to the court order.
The division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud while asking the Film Federation of India - which selected the film - to file a reply within ten days, observed that "prima facie there seems to be a merit in the argument (that selection process was biased)."
The court was hearing a petition filed by the director of film 'Dharm', Bhavana Talwar challenging the film's selection as India's official entry for Academy Awards (Oscars) and posted the matter to October 10 for further hearing.
Dharm, which has Pankaj Kapur as the protagonist, lost out to Eklavya when FFI decided to sent Eklavya, directed and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, for the awards in September.
Talwar's main contention is that some members of the selection committee, namely film director Sudhir Mishra, Jagdish Sharma and Ranjit Bahadur, were "very close" to Chopra.
Bahadur was the editor of 'Making of Eklavya', a promotional film on Eklavya, petitioners say, alleging that whole selection process was "vitiated by bias."
The judges made it clear that High Court has jurisdiction to hear such a case, by noting that "Any process of selection which appears to be result of general or specific bias or arbitrariness can invite judicial review."
Further, to the argument that film has been already dispatched to United States yesterday, the court said that any consequences of selection would subject to this court's orders.
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