PREFATORY FACTS

1. The issues which this writ petition throws up, reminds me of what Voltaire said ages ago “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it”.

1.1 The writ petition has been filed to assert the constitutional right of freedom of speech and expression of a documentarian and his ilk, conferred under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. The petitioner is the producer of the film, who is aggrieved by the order passed by the Film Certificate Appellate Tribunal (in short the FCAT), in appeal, as also by the order-in-original passed by the Central Board of Film Certification (in short the CBFC).

1.2 The FCAT order, is dated 11.09.2014, while the order of the CBFC is dated 30.12.2013.

1.3 The petitioner seeks to assert his right to show the documentary titled: “The Textures of Loss”, without the stipulated deletions/excisions, as according to him, nothing in the film falls within the ambit of clause (2) of Article 19 of the Constitution. There is also a challenge to the guidelines dated 06.12.1991 (1991 Guidelines), framed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, for guidance of CBFC, while sanc