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Court stays film awards announcement

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday stayed the announcement of the 53rd National Film Awards, slated for May 12, and directed the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to consider representations made by a jury member, who alleged favouritism in the selection of films in certain categories.

Justice Kailash Gambhir issued notice, returnable on July 26, to the Ministry and the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF).

In her dissent letters to the Directorate on August 13 and September 4 last, Shyamli Banerjee Deb questioned the selection procedure, alleging that films dropped in the preliminary round were arbitrarily chosen for the awards.

She cited Tamil film Anniyan and Hindi film Apaharan that were selected for the "Best Special Effects" and for the "Best Screenplay" to buttress her charges.

She alleged that the two films were not in the reckoning in the preliminary round.

She further alleged that instead of B. Saroja Devi, chairman of the Jury for feature films, DFF officials Shankar Mohan and Manoj Srivastava conducted the selection procedure.

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