MANU/DE/0874/2017

True Court CopyTM DRJ

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI

LPA 788/2015 and CM No. 25836/2015

Decided On: 31.03.2017

Appellants: Prem Mardi Vs. Respondent: Union of India and Ors.

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
G. Rohini, C.J. Jayant Nath

JUDGMENT

G. Rohini, C.J.

1. The unsuccessful petitioner in W.P.(C) No. 8883/2015 is the appellant before us.

2. The said writ petition was filed with a prayer to quash the certificate granted to the movie "MSG 2-The Messenger" and further to direct the Union of India, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to issue appropriate orders to "You Tube" to take down the trailer of the said film from the website. The petitioner also sought a direction to the Union of India, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to issue appropriate orders to the cable and television networks prohibiting them from broadcasting the film "MSG 2-The Messenger" and to restrain the respondent No. 5/producer of the said film from circulating, distributing, exhibiting the said film or its trailer in any manner whatsoever.

3. The contention of the petitioner/appellant herein was that the film had shown the protagonist Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan as a masiha who has undertaken the task of civilizing the Adivasis by using violence and that it incites the public at large to behave violently with the Adivasis, who are described as Shaitans.

4. By the order under appeal dated 16.09.2015, the writ petition was dismissed by the learned Single Judge observing:

"14. I am unable to find anything in the trailer of the film which in the opinion of a reasonable person can be said to be inciting the people to indulge in violence against the tribal people in India. The portrayal of the people whom the protagonist of the film is shown to be fighting or taming, are described in the trailer as an evolutionary stage leading to human beings. The film describes the "adivasis" as, neither animals nor humans. Moreover, the film shows its protagonist as possessing super natural powers who is able to single-handedly and without any weapon fight a large number of adversaries and who is not only able to stop large stone boulders thrown at him but also crush them into small pieces. He is also shown as taking flights in the air, across a fleet of at least a dozen cars and throwing full grown elephants in the air and stopping ferocious charging bulls with his hand. The dialogues in the trailer of the film are sprinkled with reference to human beings of all religions capable of acting as devils. No person in his right senses can, on watching of the said trailer of the film, believe as to what is depicted therein to be a realty or possible in real life. The film is a work of fiction intended to show its protagonist who in his real life form also proclaims to be a spiritual leader, in a superhuman form. In fact the counsel for the petitioner himself admitted that nobody knows how the actual adivasis live and what are shown in the film as adivasi practices are but a work of imagination."

5. It was also observed by the learned Single Judge that from the trailer the film in question was found to be depicting a fantasy to the viewers and that the same has to be understood in the said light only. The learned Single Judge was also of the view that the reference in the film to Adivasi is not found to be relatable in any manner to Scheduled Tribes so as to attract the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, which makes any act insulting or intimidating with an intention to humiliate a particular Scheduled Cast or a Scheduled Tribe in any place within the public view, an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months.

6. Assailing the above said order of the learned Single Judge, it is vehemently contended by the learned counsel for the appellant that the conclusion of the learned Single that the word "adivasi" used in the film is not relatable in any ........