Jana Nayagan’ censor row: Court reserves orders
A Division Bench of the Madras High Court reserved its orders on a writ appeal filed by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) against a single judge’s order directing it to issue a U/A 16+ certificate for actor Vijay’s most-anticipated last movie, Jana Nayagan.
The first Bench comprising Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan deferred their verdict after hearing the arguments advanced by Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan for the CBFC and senior counsel Satish Parasaran, assisted by Vijayan Subramanian, for KVN Productions LLP.
The Bench completed hearing the marathon arguments on the writ appeal on Tuesday since the Supreme Court, while refusing to interfere with the interim stay granted to the single judge’s order by the Bench on January 9, had requested it to make an endeavour to take an early decision on the appeal.
The production firm had filed a writ petition before a single judge of the High Court on January 6, claiming that the CBFC’s examining committee had watched the movie on December 19 and recommended issuance of U/A 16+ certification if the producer agrees to carry out certain excisions.
All those excisions were carried out, and the movie was resubmitted on December 24, 2025. However, on the basis of a complaint from one of the five members of the examining committee regarding the absence of an Army expert from the committee, the CBFC put the process on hold on December 29.
Thereafter, a decision was taken on Jan. 5, 2026, to refer the movie to a nine-member revising committee, and the decision of the CBFC chairman was uploaded on the ‘e-cine pramaan’ portal on January 6, when the writ petition was heard by the single judge who ordered production of records on Jan. 7.
After perusing the records on January 7, the single judge passed orders on January 9 quashing the CBFC chairman’s decision and directed the board to issue the U/A 16+ certificate forthwith. Immediately, the CBFC filed an urgent writ appeal before the Division Bench and obtained an interim stay.
Though the production house took the interim stay order on appeal to the Supreme Court, the latter refused to interfere with the order and requested the Division Bench to make an endeavour to dispose of the writ appeal at the earliest.
In her order on the writ petition, Justice P.T. Asha had pointed out that the five-member examining committee of the CBFC had watched the movie on December 19, 2025, and all the members had unanimously recommended the issuance of a U/A 16+ certificate after listing the excisions required to be made. This decision was also communicated to the production house on Dec. 22.
The producers accepted the recommendation, carried out all the required excisions, and re-submitted the edited version on December 24. Subsequently, on December 29, the production house was informed that the Board had decided to issue a U/A certificate. However, on January 5, in a sudden volte-face, the Regional Officer of CBFC claimed that the chairman had decided to refer the movie to a revising committee.