No curbs on screening ‘Lamhaa’ on TV: Court

NEW DELHI - The Delhi High Court Thursday refused to restrain Colors TV channel from screening Bollywood film “Lamhaa” based on Kashmir. A petition seeking the curbs was filed by two army officers.

The petitioners sought a ban on the screening of Rahul Dholakia-directed film on the channel Aug 29 alleging that it showed the security forces in poor light. They also sought withdrawal of the film from cinema halls.

The public interest litigation (PIL) was moved by Colonel Rajiv Mehrotra and Captain Rahul Soni.

A division bench of chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Manmohan after watching the film’s CD in the chamber, declined to pass a stay order against the channel.

The court asked the petitioners to approach the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) by Friday and file a representation raising the issue.

The Sanjay Dutt and Bipasha Basu-starrer was released in July.

The court also issued notices to the central government, CBFC and the film producer and sought their reply within two weeks.

Appearing for the petitioners, counsel Jyoti Singh submitted that the “objectionable” scenes and dialogues in the movie were eliciting sharp reaction from jawans who were feeling hurt.

Seeking a ban on the screening of the movie in cinema halls and also the TV channel, the officers contended the movie has focused on Jammu and Kashmir resident’s demand for a separate state, depicting army officers in a poor light.

“The army officers were shown in nexus with terrorist organisations, Pakistani businessmen and intelligence agency. There are scenes and conversations where deals are being struck with army officers in consideration for opening of borders for a few hours so as to permit safe ingress of the terrorists into the country,” the officers alleged.

The court fixed Sep 22 as the next date for hearing.