Don’t act against Murugadoss until Friday: HC to Govt

Justice N Anand Venkatesh before whom the plea came up following a mention being made, the counsel appearing for the director submitted that the FIR registered is against the very essence of the fundamental right to freedom of expression bestowed by the Constitution. Moreover, there exists a clear bar against registration of such a case as per the provisions of the Cinematograph Act 1952, the counsel said. However, the de-facto complainant G Devarajan claimed that action ought to be taken against Murugadoss for prompting people to break freebies like TV and grinder provided by the government. He said the director being an influential person in society cannot afford to do this.

Murugadoss in his quash petition had submitted that he has a passion towards social events and that his movies usually portray the prevailing social scenario owing to his sense of social responsibility. He also noted that criticism of government policy is not an offence in a democracy.

“The allegations in the FIR do not disclose any prima-facie case against Murugadoss and moreover the said film was duly cleared by the Board of Film Certification, which meant that there is a legal bar. After the clearance, the applicant of the film certificate, the producer, distributor shall not be liable for any punishment under any law relating to obscenity in respect of any matter contained in the film,” the plea noted. Subsequent to its release, Sarkar was re-censored due to the agitations staged by AIADMK party cadre and the disputed scenes was removed. Therefore, no offence as claimed by the de-facto complainant has been committed, it added.