FCAT is Censor Board's higher body: Col. Rathore

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore on Friday stated that the Censor Board has a higher body, the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), where parties aggrieved by the decisions of the former may appeal.

"The Censor Board has a job to do and if anyone feels that their decision is not correct, they appeal in a higher body. The higher body is called FCAT. It is headed by a retired justice and has eminent members, including Justice (retd) Rewa Khetrapal, advocate Bina Gupta and so on," Colonel Rathore told ANI.

"We have complete faith in the Censor Board, despite the fact that it has been placed by the previous government. It may be a change of party, but the Indian Government has faith in its institutions. We did not change a single member of the Censor Board, nor superimpose any member," he added.

Colonel Rathore further stated that his ministry does not interfere in the workings of the Censor Board, citing the example of the Aamir Khan-starrer 'PK', which had sparked widespread protests across the country.

"We did not intervene when a movie was released two weeks earlier, when there was a furore in the country. People wanted us to take action but we did not intervene," he said.

Replying to claims by Censor Board chairman Leela Samson that the body had held no meetings for around one year, the I-B minister also clarified that his ministry does not convene the meetings.

"It is not the decision of the ministry to convene meetings of the Censor Board. The chairperson has entire authority to call for meetings. In nine months, the chairperson has not called for a single meeting. I would also like to know if she has ever written to the ministry asking to convene a meeting. The answer is never," he stated.

"We would also like to see if there is any message or letter in which a ministry official was trying to coerce her - there is no such case," he added.

Earlier in the day, Samson tendered her resignation, citing alleged 'interference, coercion and corruption' by the FCAT after the latter apparently cleared the controversial film Messenger of God (MSG), starring Dera Saccha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.