CHENNAI: Holding that the censor certificate for the Tamil film `New' had been issued with "folded hands and blind eyes," the Madras High Court on Friday revoked the certificate and directed the Chennai City Commissioner of Police to investigate two criminal complaints registered against its producer-actor S.J. Surya.

A Division Bench comprising Justice M. Karpagavinayagam and Justice S. Ashok Kumar, passing orders on a petition filed by advocate Arulmozhi, said: "There is no difficulty for this court to conclude that the theme, scenes, sequences and songs depicting child abuse, vulgarity, obscenity and dialogues giving dual meaning, cater to the baser instincts of the public. They would violate the statutory provisions and guidelines and, as such, it has to be held that the film `New' has not been produced in accordance with the guidelines of the Cinematograph Act and that the censor certificate has been issued to this film by the Board with folded hands and blind eyes, and hence the same is liable to be revoked."

In her petition, Ms. Arulmozhi submitted that the censor certificate, which was refused initially, was obtained "under questionable circumstances" and despite protests by a lady member of the Board. Publicity materials not permitted by the Board were also used by the producer. Even censored absence sequences and clippings were "freely telecast in all television channels, enabling children to view them, leaving the `A' certificate meaningless."

Following complaints, the Board engaged a private agency to detect violations by the producer. After unearthing a large number of violations, the Board lodged a police complaint against Mr. Surya on August 20, 2004.

The Bench ruled that the film did not provide a "clean and healthy entertainment," and added that it would be failing in its duty if it did not revoke the censor certificate of the film... "

Directing the Chief Secretary to ensure the proper implementation of the provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act and the Tamil Nadu (Compulsory Censorship of Film Publicity Materials) Act, the Judges revoked the censor certificate of the film. They then directed the Commissioner of Police to ensure that the two cases registered against Mr. Surya were investigated and reports filed immediately.

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