Udta Punjab row: Supreme Court, Punjab and Haryana HC clear decks for release

The Supreme Court and the Punjab and Haryana high court cleared the decks on Thursday for the release of the controversial film Udta Punjab across the country on June 17. Both the courts refused to stay the release of the film at this stage after the Bombay high court ordered the release with a single cut.

A Punjab-based NGO, Human Rights Awareness Association, had moved the apex court challenging the Bombay HC verdict contending that the film portrays Punjab in a bad light and will have an impact on foreign investment in the state. Several PILs had also been filed in the Punjab and Haryana HC.

A vacation bench of the apex court comprising Justices A.K. Goel and L. Nageswara Rao asked the NGO to withdraw its petition and await the outcome of the order in the high court. The bench told senior counsel Subram-onium Prasad that it was not entertaining the petition, as the NGO was not a party to the litigation in the Bomb-ay HC and had failed to produce a copy of the HC order. Also, it had not established its locus standi.

Meanwhile, the high court refused to stay the release of the film and dismissed the petitions. The high court had appointed an amicus curiae to watch the film and submit a report. The amicus in his report said the film in no manner glorified the usage of drugs in Punjab. The viewer is likely to empathise with the message the filmmaker is seeking to convey through Udta Punjab, the report added. The court accepted the report and dismissed the petitions.

In the apex court, the counsel submitted that the Central Board of Film Certification had suggested the cuts after watching the movie, while the HC had reduced the cuts to just one after going through the script which was not sufficient to gauge the impact of the visuals. He said the CBFC had rightly directed the producer and the director of the movie to delete all objectionable scenes. While so the Bombay high court should not have quashed the CBFC order on June 13 and directed the board to clear the movie within 48 hours.

The bench, however, told the counsel that when the state of Punjab and the CBFC had not challenged the verdict why should the NGO prefer an appeal. It said there are two serious issues on drug addiction — one is supply of drug and the other is unemployment — and one can’t blame the state of Punjab. It is all because of its location. Even the Northeast had drug problems.

Senior counsel Meenakshi Arora appeared for the producer and submitted that the CBFC has already certified the film and had clarified that it was not approaching the apex court challenging the Bombay high court verdict.

She said the Bombay high court had examined the script and allowed its screening.