The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday quashed the order that forced theatre owners to suspend the screening of the film, Jodhaa Akbar. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led state Government had imposed the ban on Friday, citing possible law and order problem. However, the court said that the state Government did not have “sufficient basis” to impose the ban.Since the order came in the evening, theatre owners said they would be able to resume the screening of the movie only on Wednesday. The ban had taken the distributor and the theatre owners by surprise because the state had seen very few protests. As many as 30 theatres were screening the movie successfully when they were told to suspend it.UTV Motion Pictures had moved the High Court on Saturday. A single Bench heard the matter on Monday and referred it to a Division Bench. On Tuesday, a Bench, comprising Chief Justice A K Patnaik and P Srivastava, heard the matter for four hours, before ruling in favour of the petitioner.Petitioner's advocate Akshay Dharmadhikari argued that the Government's order violated the freedom of speech and expression enjoyed by his client. He contended that there was no justification in suspending the movie after it was cleared by the Censor Board.Advocate General R N Singh said the court held that there were disturbances in certain pockets, but there was no justification in suspending the movie. The court, however, allowed the Government to consider suspending the movie again, using the power it enjoys under the Section 6 (1) of the Cinema Regulation Act.
