Revision committee of CBFC likely to decide on Janaki vs State of Kerala on June 26

Close on the heels of the producer firm of the Malayalam feature film JSK – Janaki vs State of Kerala approaching the Kerala High Court alleging delay by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in issuing a censor certificate for the film, the censor board’s revision committee is expected to announce its decision on the movie on Thursday.

The High Court will issue a directive based on the decision of the censor board.

Objection to name

The producer firm had on Tuesday sought a court directive to the CBFC to process and issue the censor certificate in a time-bound manner. The firm contended that it had submitted an application in this regard on June 12. But the CBFC has not issued the certificate or raised any formal objection, allegedly due to informal and oral objections to the film’s title and the character name ‘Janaki’, despite having earlier issued a censor certificate for the teaser of the film. This delay is arbitrary and amounts to violation of the petitioner’s fundamental rights under Article 19 of the Constitution, the firm said in its petition.

The worldwide release of the film was scheduled for June 27 and any further delay in issuing the certificate would cause irreparable financial and reputational loss, the firm said.