- (1.) "chand Bujh Gaya" is a feature film produced by Faaiz Anwar. The film dwells on the travails of a young couple -a Hindu boy and a Muslim girl - whose friendship and lives are torn asunder in riots in the State of Gujarat. The Central Board of Film Certificate ('cbfc') refused to certify the film for exhibition. The Film Certification appellate Tribunal affirmed that order. The producer is before the Court under Article 226 of the Constitution. For the reasons that we now proceed to record, we have come to the conclusion that the reasons which weighed with the CBFC and the Tribunal constitute a clear infringement of the fundamental right of the producer under Article '19 (l) (a) of the Constitution. We hold that the reasons are unsustainable and that certification for the film could not lawfully have been refused. II
(2.) BESIDES "chand Bujh Gaya", Mr. Faaiz Anwar states that he has been associated with the production of several films, among them "dil Hai ke Manta nahi", "sajjan" and "vijay Path", "chand Bujh Gaya" was produced under the banner of F. A. Picture International with an aggregate footage of 11602 feet comprised in 15 reels. On 22nd September, 2003 the petitioner applied for certification of the film for public exhibition to the regional office of the CBFC at Calcutta. The film was examined by the Examination Committee. On 24th september, 2003 the petitioner received an intimation that the Committee recommended a refusal of certificate to the film for the following reason : "the film from the end of Reel No. 8 contains visuals as well as dialogues, which may have the danger of inciting communal violence among the people. Besides, a large number of visuals are extremely terrifying and as such unsuitable for public exhibition. "
(3.) THE petitioner by a letter dated 16th October, 2003 communicated a willingness to change the contents of dialogues and visuals which could not be certified in the view of the Committee. Thereupon after discussions with the Examining Committee the petitioner carried out deletions and alterations after the eighth reel reducing the footage of the film to 10,966 feet. The revised footage was submitted on 8th December, 2003 to the first respondent at Calcutta. On 12th December, 2003, the CBFC informed the petitioner that the Committee had recommended that the certificate be refused for the following reasons : "the film from after Reel No. 7 has depicted the following : 1. Gruesome communal violence, which, it is felt will forment communal disharmony. 2. Certain characters and incidents which are clearly identifiable with actual personalities and individuals, the public exhibition of which may lead to public disharmony. 3. The Gujarat violence is a live issue and a scar on national sensitivity. Exhibition of the film will certainly aggravate the situation. ";