Vyooham producer challenges judgment against censor certificate

Hyderabad: The producer of ‘Vyuham’ movie filed an appeal before the Telangana High Court, challenging the single judge’s orders, which has quashed the clearance certificate issued by Censor board to the movie.

Following on a petition filed by the Telugu Desam, which had complained that the movie was made to defame it and its president N. Chandrababu Naidu, the single judge on January 22 set aside the clearance certificate to the movie, and asked the revision committee to take further action.

Aggrieved by the single judge orders, Dasari Kiran Kumar, the proprietor of Ramadhutha Creations, which produced the movie, filed an appeal against the single judge’s order. The appeal was listed for hearing on Thursday before the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Alok Aradhe.

Senior counsel A. Venkatesh, appearing for the appellant, submitted that a political party is not a juristic entity and therefore has no locus to file the writ petition against the movie and political party cannot file a writ petition in case of defamation of its president.

Senior counsel further submitted that the recourse of Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code cannot be made applicable in respect of an offence which has to be tried under common law. “Merely on the basis of a trailer, it can be concluded that a movie is defamatory about a person,” the senior counsel argued.

The bench issued notices to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), the Telugu Desam and will hear the appeal on January 30 and decide the issue.