1. These appeals by leave are from the judgment of the Division Bench of the Madras High Court revoking the 'U-Certificate' issued to a Tamil film called "Ore Oru Gramathile" (In One Village) for public exhibition. Civil Appeal Nos. 1668 and 1669 of 1988 are by the producer of the film and the civil appeal nos. 13667 and 13668 of 1988 are by the Union of India.
2. The story of "Ore Oru Gramathile" can be summarised as follows:
3. A Brahmin widower, Shankara Sastry, has a talented daughter Gayathri. He apprehends that she would not be able to get admission to college because she belongs to a Brahmin community, He seeks advice from his close friend Devashayam, a Tahsildar. The Tahsildar who otherwise belongs to a very poor family and whose father was working in a local Church responds with gratitude. He devises a method to help Gayathri because it was through Sastry's father that he got proper education and rose to become a Tahsildar. He prepares a false certificate showing Gayathri as Karuppayee belonging to an Adi Dravida Community and as an orphan. He issues the certificate under the reservation policy of the Government for the benefit of 'backward communities' identified on caste consideration. On the basis of the false certificate, Karuppayee gets admitted to college and enters I.A.S. Witness to this arrangement is the brother-in-law of Tahsildar called Anthony who later turns out to be a villain of the piece.
Years later, Karuppayee, who was working in Delhi is sent to a rural village called Annavayil as a Special Officer for flood relief operations. Her father, Shankara Sastry happens to work in the same village as Block Development officer. However both of them pretend not to recognise each other. Karuppayee takes her work seriously and improves the living conditions of people to such an extent that she is held by them in high esteem. By a coincidence, after the death of the Tahsildar, Anthony comes to live in the same village and recognises Karuppayee. He starts blackmailing her and threatens to reveal the fraudulent means by which she got the caste certificate. His attempt is to extract money from her frequently. One evening when he visits Karuppayee's house, he is confronted by Shankata Sastry who puts a halt to his blackmailing. Later Anthony dies of sudden heart attack but not before he informs the Government about the facts relating to Karuppayee, Upon preliminary enquiry, the Government suspends both Karuppayee and her father and eventually they are put on trial in the Court. The people of the village resentful of the action taken against Karuppayee rise as one man and demonstrate before the Court in a peaceful manner for her release. They also send petitions to the Government.
Karuppayee and her father admit in the Court the fact of their having obtained the false caste certificate but they attribute it to circumstances resulting by Government reservation policy on caste basis. They say that they are prepared to undergo any punishment. They contend that some politicians are exploiting the cast consideration and that would be detrimental to national integration. They also argue that the reservation policy should not be based on caste, but could be on economic backwardness. Just about the time when the judgment is to be pronounced the Court receives intimation from Government that in the light of petitions received from the public, the caste against Karuppayee and her father stands withdrawn. Karuppayee goes back to her Government job with jubilant people all round.
3. This is the theme of the picture presented. As usual, it contains some songs........