LAW FOR ALL

The film ‘Aarakshan’ =This writ petition is filed by the petitioners praying for the reliefs specifically set out in the prayer portion of the writ petition. One of the reliefs that is sought for in this writ petition is to strike down the provision of Section 6 (1) of the U.P. Cinemas (Regulation) Act (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) being allegedly ultra vires to the Constitution of India. The other relief that is sought for is to quash and set aside the decisions taken by the respondents, namely State of Punjab, State of Andhra Pradesh and State of Uttar Pradesh suspending the screening of the film ‘Aarakshan’ in their respective States for a specified period. -Therefore, since the expert body has already found that the aforesaid film could be screened all over the country, we find the opinion of the High Level committee for deletion of some of the scenes/words from the film amounted to exercising power of pre- censorship, which power is not available either to any high-level expert committee of the State or to the State Government. It appears that the State Government through the High Level Committee sought to sit over and override the decision of the Board by proposing deletion of some portion of the film, which power is not vested at all with the State. Page 12 of 14 23. It is for the State to maintain law and order situation in the State and, therefore, the State shall maintain it effectively and potentially. Once the Board has cleared the film for public viewing, screening of the same cannot be prohibited in the manner as sought to be done by the State in the present case. As held in K.M Sankarapaa (Supra) it is the responsibility of the State Government to maintain law and order. 24. Considering the entire facts and circumstances of the case, we are of the considered opinion that the present writ petition is required to be partly allowed in terms of the observations made herein. 25. We, therefore, set aside and quash the decision of the State Government suspending the screening of the film ‘Aarakshan’ in the State of Uttar Pradesh in the light of the observations made and we partly allow the petition to the aforesaid extent.