Mass boycott of National Film Awards-vacant seats filled with dummies.
NEW DELHI: About 50 National Film Award winners boycotted the presentation ceremony on Thursday after they learnt that President Ram Nath Kovind would give away the awards to only 11 winners while the rest would receive them from Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Smriti Irani.
Among those who received the award and citation from Kovind were Boney Kapoor and his daughters on behalf of the late Sridevi, music composer AR Rahman, and Akshay Khanna on behalf of his late father Vinod Khanna.
As most winners received their awards from Irani. A day earlier, a massive controversy had erupted with many refusing to accept the award from her. One of the winners, director Indrani Chakraborty, expressed her disappointed. “Getting the National Award from the President of India is a huge honour. Any recipient treasures that one photograph with the President for life. We have given a signed petition to the directorate of film festivals stating that we will be absent from the ceremony if the awards aren’t given by the President.”
Vacant seats filled with 'dummies'
As the National Film Award winners, their guests and other invitees began gathering at the presentation venue, at least two rows of seats reserved for the awardees were vacant.
“The empty seats were later filled with dummies,” an award winner said.
Shekhar Kapur, chairman of the awards jury, earlier tried to mediate but failed to convince the agitated winners. About 60 award winners, including directors Kaushik Ganguly and Atanu Ghosh, wrote a letter to the President to express their disappointment. But with no response forthcoming, many left for the airport.
“In the circumstance of not receiving a response for our grievance, we are left with no option but to be absent for the ceremony. We do not intend to boycott the award, but are not attending the ceremony to convey our discontent and are awaiting a just solution,” read the letter.
The President’s secretariat issued a clarification which stated, “The President attends all award functions and convocations for a maximum of one hour. This has been the protocol since he took office. It was conveyed to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry several weeks ago and the ministry knew this all along. Rashtrapati Bhavan is surprised by the 11th hour questions that have been raised.”
Over 50 seats were vacant while Smriti Irani gave away the awards. To save her from embarrassment, organisers removed the name plates of the absent awardees and people sitting in the back rows were allowed to occupy the front seats.
Those present at the ceremony to receive awards included Rima Das, Jayaraj, Riddhi Sen, A R Rahman, K J Yesudas, Nagraj Manjule, Pankaj Tripathi, Divya Dutta, Nikhil S Praveen, Tenzing Kunchok and Sanjiv Monga.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Bombay High Court strikes down Centre's plan to set up Fact-Check Unit
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has struck down the central government's plan to establish a fact-checking unit (FCU) under the Information Technology Amendment Rules, 2023. The decision comes in response to a petition filed by standup comedian Kunal Kamra, challenging the constitutional validity of the Centre's move.
Justice A.S. Chandurkar, delivering the final verdict, declared that the proposed IT Amendment Rules violated key provisions of the Indian Constitution, namely Articles 14 (right to equality), 19 (freedom of speech and expression), and 19(1)(g) (right to profession).
“I have considered the matter extensively. The impugned rules are violative of Articles 14, 19, and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India,” Justice Chandurkar said in his judgment. He further remarked that terms like "fake, false, and misleading" in the IT Rules were "vague" and lacked a clear definition, making them unconstitutional.
This judgment followed a split verdict issued by a division bench of the Bombay High Court in January. The bench, consisting of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale, was divided in their opinions. While Justice Patel ruled that the IT Rules amounted to censorship and struck them down, Justice Gokhale upheld the rules, arguing that they did not pose a "chilling effect" on free speech, as the petitioners had claimed.
The matter was then referred to a third judge, leading to today's decision. The Supreme Court had previously stayed the Centre's notification that would have made the fact-checking unit operational, stating that the government could not proceed until the Bombay High Court ruled on the case.
Kunal Kamra and other petitioners had argued that the amendments posed unreasonable restrictions on freedom of speech and expression. They contended that the provisions would lead to government-led censorship, effectively granting the government unchecked powers to determine what constitutes 'truth' online. The petitioners further claimed that such powers would turn the government into "prosecutor, judge, and executioner" in matters of online content.
With the Bombay High Court’s ruling, the Centre's move to create fact-checking units has been effectively halted, reaffirming the importance of protecting freedom of speech and expression in the digital space.
