Delhi High Court: Order on Santa Banta film after viewing

The Delhi high court on Wednesday ruled that it will pass orders on a plea by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee against the release of the film Santa Banta Pvt. Ltd. after viewing it.

The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee had filed a public interest litigation against the film, to be released on April 22, contending that it makes fun of the Sikh community. The plea claimed if the film was allowed to be released, the “reputation of Sikh community will be immensely affected, causing irreparable loss to the Sikh community all over the world.”

However, the Central government and the censor board told the bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath in the Delhi high court that there was nothing in the yet-to-be-released film that could be construed as objectionable or as making fun of the Sikh community. Santa Banta Pvt. Ltd. is a suspense comedy film directed by Akashdeep Sabir and produced by Viacom 18 that will promote and distribute the film along with Cinetek Telefilms. The cast includes Boman Irani, Vir Das, Lisa Haydon and Neha Dhupia.

After hearing arguments, the high court directed Viacom 18, which is promoting the film, to provide it a compact disc of Santa Banta Pvt Ltd, its trailers and preamble and said it will pass orders after viewing them. Thereafter, the bench reserved order in the matter.

The film’s producers and director questioned the maintainability of the plea as a public interest litigation and said the petitioner was claiming that the film was objectionable without even seeing it.

During the hearing, additional solicitor-general Sanjay Jain told the court that the censor board certified the film after considering all aspects and nothing offensive towards the Sikh community was found.

Mr Jain said under the Cinematograph Act, only the producers can challenge the censor board’s order in the appellate tribunal.