Nagpur: A high court bench here came down heavily on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar and other private channels on the Internet for broadcasting ‘pornographic’ content, crudity, sexual or discriminatory language, and various levels of violence and ordered the information and broadcasting ministry to initiate effective steps for curbing the trend and issued notices.The notice is returnable by October 31.
A public interest litigation (PIL) filed here requesting the high court to issue orders aimed at curbing the deluge of vulgarity, violent scenes and crude language on web series. “The screening of pornographic contents, vulgar gestures and talks are overriding the Indian culture and morality,” the PIL said.
A division bench of Justice Bhushan Dharm-adhikari and Justice Murlidhar Giratkar at the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court, on Friday during the hearing on the PIL, issued notices to the information and broadcasting ministry, electronics and information technology ministry, law and judiciary ministry as well as home ministry.
The court has asked the ministries concerned to set up a pre-screening committee for curbing crudity, sexual or discriminatory language, vulgar gestures, nudity, sex, immodesty on web series and monitor the series and advertisements before going on online media. “Take care that no series, national or international, is directly published on any platform,” the court said and ordered issuance of guiding principles. “If the websites are found violating provisions of Cinematography Act, Indecent Representation of Women Prohibition Act 1986 and other similar Acts, and then act tough against the guilty,” the high court directed the ministries concerned in the notices.
The PIL pointed out that the contents of the web series are in connection with political, physical relationships, and/or other sensitive subjects.
