High Court to view Emotional Atyachar episodes

Chief Justice Dipak Misra of the Delhi High Court has decided to see two recent episodes of the reality show Emotional Atyachar on UTV Bindass, following a petition that it is vulgar and obscene.

A division bench of Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna would also examine whether set guidelines have been followed while allowing its telecast.

The petitioner wanted a direction that the channel be taken off air for allegedly "spreading vulgarity and demoting social and moral values".

The bench asked the channel to submit the video of the two recent episodes by 19 July.

It also asked the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to place on record the guidelines relating to such programmes.

"We would like to see whether the Central Board of Film Certification has followed the guidelines while issuing the certificate to the channel for telecast," the bench said. The bench was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by NGO Indraprashtha People through its President Sanjay Tiwari Ujjala.

The petition alleged that "through this programme, the TV channel has been hurting the feeling of viewers, spreading vulgarity and demoting social and moral values in our society".

Ministry sources said that though a detailed reply would be filed later, it was clear that this fell in the ambit of the newly constituted Broadcast Content Complaints Council managed by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, particularly as there was no system of pre-censorship by the CBFC.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/legal-news/item/726-high-court-to-view-emotional-atyachar-episodes.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/legal-news/item/726-high-court-to-view-emotional-atyachar-episodes.html