Supreme Court upholds policy on film awards

The Supreme Court has held that the government policy of allowing only censored films to compete for the National Film Awards is not an "unreasonable restriction" on a filmmaker's rights.

In a ruling, pronounced Wednesday but released Thursday, a bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and R.V. Raveendran held that "the requirement that films should have been certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for entry for the 53rd National Film Awards is not an unreasonable restriction of any fundamental right of the filmmakers".

The bench delivered the ruling while quashing a July 2006 judgment of the Bombay High Court permitting even uncensored films to compete for the award.

The bench also ruled that allowing only censored films to compete for the National Film Awards was a policy of the government with the judiciary having no scope to tinker with it.

It said, "The decision to consider for awards only those films which are certified by the board for public exhibition is a policy of the ministry. The scope of judicial review of governmental policy is now well defined. Courts do not and cannot act as appellate authorities examining the correctness, suitability and appropriateness of a policy.

"Nor are the courts advisors to the executive on matters of policy, which the executive is entitled to formulate. Courts cannot interfere with policy either on the ground that it is erroneous or on the ground that a better, fairer or wiser alternative is available," it ruled.

Upholding the government's policy of allowing only films cleared by CBFC to compete for awards, the bench said, "The object is to select the best from among those which the public can see and enjoy or gain knowledge.

"The said policy neither relates to nor interferes with the right of a filmmaker either to make films, or to apply for certificate or to exhibit the films. There is nothing illogical, unreasonable or arbitrary about a policy to select only the best from among films certified for public exhibition," the bench said.

The bench said "the judiciary cannot, in judicial review, change the policy by requiring the government to select the best from among all 'films made' instead of 'films made and certified for public exhibition'".