Legal Stalemate Over Vijay’s Jana Nayagan: High Court Postpones Verdict, Release Uncertain For Now

Chennai: The release of actor-turned-politician Vijay’s cinematic venture, Jana Nayagan appears to be in limbo as Madras High Court has postponed its verdict regarding the film’s censorship certificate.

Jana Nayagan, the last film of Vijay, who has entered politics, was scheduled for a worldwide release on Tuesday, January 9. Vijay's fans were in a celebratory mood as the release date was announced to coincide with the Pongal festival. Besides Tamil Nadu, Vijay has a huge fan base in neighboring states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Kerala, creating high expectations for the movie there as well.

However, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) refused to issue a censorship certificate for the film at the last minute. The CBFC explained that the certificate was withheld because some dialogues in the film were deemed to hurt religious sentiments. Consequently, the release date of Jana Nayagan was temporarily postponed.

Meanwhile, KVN Productions, the company that produced Jana Nayagan, filed a petition in the High Court against the CBFC, seeking the issuance of a censorship certificate. Justice Nisha Banu, who heard the petition, ordered the CBFC to issue the certificate on January 9. The CBFC appealed against the single judge's order in the High Court division bench. The High Court judges, after hearing the appeal, issued an interim stay on the single judge's order.

Subsequently, the production company of Jana Nayagan filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court division bench's order. On January 15, the Supreme Court judges, after hearing the petition, stated that they did not wish to intervene in the case and directed the High Court to expedite the proceedings and deliver a verdict.

Following this, the case came up for hearing again on Tuesday before the Chennai High Court Chief Justice's bench. Senior advocate Sundaresan appeared and argued on behalf of the CBFC. He said, "The chairman of the Censor Board has the authority to send the film to the review committee before issuing a certificate. This procedure of sending the film to the review committee has been followed for many films. It was not done only for the film 'Democrat'.

According to the Censor Board procedure, if there is any objection against the film, it should be communicated to the film company within a minimum of 7 to 15 days. “In this film's case, it was communicated to the production company within 7 days. When the film production company filed a case in the High Court on December 6, they were well aware that the decision had been made to send the film to the review committee," he said.

He further added, "In the single judge's hearing, we should have been given at least a few days to present our side of the arguments. However, the judgment was delivered without our arguments being presented. Furthermore, the film production company was informed that 14 scenes should be removed from the film, and only after reviewing the film again, a decision will be made. But the film production company is asking for the certificate after removing the 14 scenes."

The judges then questioned who has the authority to watch the film and issue a certificate. In response, the Censor Board's lawyer said, "The Censor Board in Mumbai has the authority to issue the certificate. No final decision has been made regarding the issuance of a certificate for this film."

Following this, the film production company presented its arguments. "All the rules requiring transparency from the Censor Board have been violated. To bring transparency to the certification process, everything is uploaded online. But in this case, everything was concealed after December 29. How can a complaint be filed based on scenes that have been removed from the film? How did the Censor Board accept it?" it questioned.

The judges then asked who filed the complaint against the film. Responding to this, the Censor Board stated, "A complaint was received by the Chairman of the Censor Board in Mumbai. There is a rule that the identity of the complainant should not be disclosed to the film production company until the certificate is issued."

In the petition filed by the production company against the Censor Board, the judges also commented that obtaining an order in a single day was unacceptable. The production company responded that it too was not given sufficient time. Furthermore, the film production company alleged that the Censor Board had appealed against the single judge's order on the very same day.

The judges then questioned how many days it would take for the review committee to watch the film and issue a certificate. The Censor Board replied that a review committee would be formed within 20 days, and then the film would be watched and a certificate would be issued. They also stated that if the committee refused to issue the certificate, the film production team could approach the High Court.