HC asks Centre, CBFC to reply on allegation of non-compliance of guidelines on accessibility

The Delhi High Court on Friday sought response of the Centre and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on a plea seeking to revoke the certification of ‘Transformers One’ and ‘Devara’ or any other movie released recently without the required accessibility features.

Justice Sanjeev Narula also asked the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Viacom18 Studios, Yuvasudha Arts LLP and NTR Arts LLP to file replies to the petition by two visually impaired persons and listed the matter for further hearing on December 5.

Petitioners Mithilesh Kumar Yadav and Suman Bhokray claimed in the plea that the two movies ‘Devara: Part 1’ and ‘Transformers One’ are not having accessibility features for hearing and visually impaired persons, that is, CC (closed captioning)/ OC (open captioning) and AD (audio description) features, which is contrary to the guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

As per the Guidelines for Accessibility Standards in the Public Exhibition of Feature Films in Cinema Theatres for Persons with Hearing and Visual Impairment, “All feature films that are to be certified in more than one language would be required to provide at least one accessibility feature each for the hearing impaired and visually impaired, that is, CC/OC and AD, within 6 months from the effective date of implementation of these guidelines”.

Advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi, representing the petitioners, said the guidelines were issued on March 15, 2024 for ensuring CC/OC and AD features in all the multilingual movies latest by September 14 and as such the timelines of six months has expired.

Subsequent certified movies like ‘Devara Part 1’ and ‘Transformers One’ are not having these accessibility features, which is contrary to the guidelines, and the petitioners are the victims of denial of these features, the petition said.

It added that when the petitioners went to watch these two movies in the cinema hall, they faced difficulty as they could not comprehend the contents of the films which were not containing the accessibility features.

While ‘Transformers One’, produced by Viacom18 Studios, was released on September 20, ‘Devara: Part 1’, produced by Yuvasudha Arts LLP and NTR Arts LLP, was released on September 27.

The plea said the petitioners tried to gather information about non-implementation of the guidelines and they were shocked to find out that the CBFC continued to certify the multilingual movies without conforming to the guidelines, causing inconvenience for visually impaired and hearing impaired persons who are not being able to comprehend while watching the movies.

It sought a direction to the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities to take steps to enforce compliance with the Guidelines and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act