{"id":5168,"date":"2019-04-11T16:32:48","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T11:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/34.22.110.190\/english\/?p=5168"},"modified":"2021-01-05T03:12:34","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T21:42:34","slug":"supreme-court-asks-bengal-government-to-pay-rs-20-lakh-as-compensation-to-bhobhishyoter-bhoot-producer-for-unofficial-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/supreme-court-asks-bengal-government-to-pay-rs-20-lakh-as-compensation-to-bhobhishyoter-bhoot-producer-for-unofficial-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court asks Bengal government to pay Rs. 20 lakh as compensation to Bhobhishyoter Bhoot producer for \u201cunofficial\u201d ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court of India today directed the West Bengal government to pay Rs. 20 lakh to the producer of the film <em>Bhobhishyoter Bhoot<\/em> for the \u201cunofficial\u201d ban it faced in the state.<\/p>\n<p>Police authorities had apparently ordered that it be removed from screens immediately after its release as the \u201ccontents of the film may hurt public sentiments which may lead to political law and order issues\u201d as per a letter written to the producers of the film, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>Anik Datta \u2013 the director of the film \u2013 had stated that the Kolkata Police had written to one of the producers of the film insisting that police clearance was required for the film as certain portions of it could stoke trouble. Over and above the compensation amount of Rs.20 lakhs, the apex court has also imposed a cost of Rs. 1 lakh on the West Bengal government.<\/p>\n<p>A petition filed in the Supreme Court by advocate Rukshana Chowdhury on behalf of the producers of the film claimed that it had been removed from the screens at the instructions of \u201chigher authorities\u201d as per personnel on the spot.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court bench of D Y Justice Chandrachud and Justice Hemant Gupta passed the ruling today noting the \u201cgrowing intolerance\u201d in the country over artistic license.<\/p>\n<p>Adding that \u201cfree speech cannot be gagged for the fear of mob\u201d, the bench came down heavily on attempts to muffle the voices of dissent. Earlier on March 16, West Bengal chief secretary, home secretary and director-general of police had been instructed by the apex court to ensure that there is no interference with the screening of <em>Bhobhishyoter Bhoot<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Chandrachud and Justice Gupta had deliberated on the matter stating that \u201conce a movie is certified by (the) Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), it is not open to any authority to issue formal or informal directions preventing the producer from having the movie screened\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>If such a thing happens, it then \u201cinfringes the rights under Article 19\u201d which relate to the fundamental right to free speech and expression, the court had added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Free speech cannot be gagged for the fear of mob, the apex court observed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":279,"featured_media":5169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"tmauthors":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/279"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5168"},{"taxonomy":"tmauthors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tmauthors?post=5168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}