Madras high court orders removal of Irandam Kuththu movie teaser from social media – Times of India

MADURAI: The Madras high court on Wednesday directed the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government to remove the teaser of the movie “Irandam Kuththu” from social media. The court observed that such kinds of teasers with obscenity and vulgarity would not only corrupt the minds of the younger minds but would also result in increase of offences against women and children.
The court was hearing a batch of public interest litigations seeking to restrain the release of the movie as the teaser and its posters are obscene in nature. The petitioners stated that the movie was said to be the sequel of the movie “Iruttu Arayil Murattu Kuththu” which was released in 2018. The dialogues in the movie had affected the modesty of women.
A division bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice B Pugalendhi observed that the movie propagates vulgarity and obscenity without any morality. “We cannot forget the fact that there is a steep increase in the offences against women and children. If these vulgar contents are available in social media, then it will definitely spoil the younger minds,” observed the judges.
Though the petitioners had sought to restrain the release of the movie, the judges observed that this court could not act as a super censor board. They said the assistant solicitor general L Victoria Gowri appearing for the central government had brought to the notice of the court that the censor board had certified the movie as ‘A’ rated by making 32 cuts. The judges observed that no one except the members of the censor board had viewed the movie and the court could not take a decision on restraining the release without viewing the movie.
The judges observed that after reading the dialogues in the teaser of the movie, this court is prima facie of the opinion that they are obscene and vulgar in nature as per provisions of Cinematograph Act, 1952. The judges observed that the trailers of the movies can have the censored portion of the movie. However, there is no certification for the release of the teaser.
The case was adjourned to December 3 for further hearing.
Another public interest litigation was filed by a person K S Sagadevaraja, a resident of Virudhunagar district who sought for a direction to the Centre and the state government to monitor and take actions against the television channels and cable operators for telecast of vulgar and obscene programs and advertisements. The petitioner also sought for a direction to set up an effective complaint redressal mechanism to make complaints against such programmes and advertisements.
Hearing the plea, the division bench granted interim injunction to restrain the television channels to telecast such obscene and vulgar programmes and advertisements.