Nine major TV film channels go off air in Mumbai
(No Ratings Yet)Nine major film television channels went off air today in Mumbai after police stopped their telecast for allegedly showing adult movies in contravention to a Bombay High Court order, police said.
The Social Service Branch of Mumbai police sealed the decoders of these channels at the control rooms of several multi-system operators (MSOs) or major cable operators in various parts of the city today.
DCP Sanjay Aparanti of the Social Service Branch said that these channels have been showing adult movies despite a order of the High Court against it.
The channels which have been put off the air had their decoders sealed, Aparanti told PTI here today.
He identified the channels that were put off the air as Star Movies, Star One, Star Gold, HBO, Zee Cinema, AXN, Set Max, Sahara One and Sahara Filmy.
Aparanti said that the decision to stop telecast of these channels was taken after scrutinising the list of films shown by the TV channels in the past few months and checking the category given to them by the Central Board for Film Certification. (CBFC).
The Bombay High Court had last week taken the Director General of Police to task for not taking action against cable operators violating the court’s earlier order banning adult movies on TV. Hearing a petition filed by social activist Pratibha Nathani, the High Court, in December 2005, had ordered the police to take action against cable operators and cable service providers who telecast movies with `A’ or `U/A’ certificate.
Nathani’s lawyer M M Vashi had argued that despite the order, a total of 85 films with `A’ certificates and 42 films with `U/A’ certificates were shown on cable TV. Moreover, three other movies had no CBFC certificate at all, he contended.
However, an affidavit filed by the Director General of Police, only stated that the DCP Enforcement has issued only show-cause notice to concerned cable operators. As for the actual action, DGP’s affidavit was silent, which infuriated the judges.
Saying that DGP was answerable for the implementation of the court’s order to ensure that adult films are not shown on cable networks, the court said that affidavit filed by DGP was highly unsatisfactory.
The court directed DGP to file additional affidavit within a week’s time explaining whether any action has been taken against erring cable operators.
The matter is slated to come up for hearing on August 23. — PTI
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