Delhi High Court refuses to entertain plea seeking ban on trailer of 'Accidental Prime Minister'

The plea was filed in the Delhi High Court on Saturday seeking direction to the Centre and the censor board to suspend the trailer of the upcoming movie 'The Accidental Prime Minister', alleging that it defames the constitutional post.

New Delhi: In a major relief to the makers of movie Accidental Prime Minister, single bench of Delhi High Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking ban on the trailer of the movie. The court asked the petitioner to go to division bench for the same. The court while hearing the case asked the petitioner to file a Public Interest Litigation in the case. The plea was filed in the Delhi High Court on Saturday seeking direction to the Centre and the censor board to suspend the trailer of the upcoming movie 'The Accidental Prime Minister', alleging that it defames the constitutional post. The movie is scheduled to hit cinema halls on January 11. The plea filed by Pooja Mahajan alleged that provisions of the Cinematograph Act are being misused and the film producer has released the trailer affecting, harming the image of the office of the prime minister and giving a bad name at the national and international level. It has arrayed as parties the Centre through the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Google (India) and YouTube. The petition, filed through advocate A Maitri, claimed that due to the release of the trailer, the "post of prime minister is getting defamed on day to day basis in public domain before the public at large". It said as per reports, the film casts actor Anupam Kher as former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Akshay Khanna as Sanjaya Baru, Suzanne Bernert as Sonia Gandhi, Arjun Mathur as Rahul Gandhi and Abdul Quadir Amin as Ajay Singh. The plea added that as per the disclaimer in the movie's trailer, it was based on a book written by Sanjaya Baru but the "real facts are totally different. In fact, the disclaimer given in the trailer is untrue, false and fake". "By performing the character of Manmohan Singh, (ex-PM), Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, the performing actors/ artists have committed offences punishable under sections 416 (cheating by impersonation) of the IPC and therefore, the CBFC could not have given the certificate for screening/ exhibition of the film," it said.