Delhi High Court Upholds CBFC Refusal to Certify 'Masoom Kaatil'

Overview

• Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora dismissed producer Shyam Bharteey’s petition, leaving the film uncertified for public exhibition.
• Two CBFC panels recorded that the movie glorifies taking the law into one’s hands and contains graphic gore, human cannibalism, extreme animal cruelty, and communal or caste denigration.
• The order stressed that works ridiculing religions or inciting hatred cannot receive certification in a diverse, secular society.
• The court said portraying school teenagers in violent, lawless acts without moral correction risks brutalising minds and glamorising juvenile wrongdoing.
• Bharteey had sought an adults-only certificate with cuts but did not contest the panels’ factual findings, and the court held the content violated the Cinematograph Act and 1991 Guidelines under Article 19’s reasonable restrictions.