HC sets aside Censor Board order on 'Battle for Banaras' film

The Delhi High Court today set aside the Censor Board's decision refusing to allow public viewing of a documentary chronicling the high-voltage 2014 campaign for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat involving Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal and Congress candidate Ajay Rai.
Modi won the elections comfortably.
Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva sent the matter back to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) to take a fresh decision with reasons within four weeks.
The petition had sought quashing of the April 4 order of the FCAT and the October 16, 2015 decision of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) refusing to certify the documentary "Battle for Banaras", saying no reasons were given for rejecting their plea for certification.

The petition, by the documentary's producers, alleges that the Censor Board and FCAT orders contained no mention of what parts of the film were objectionable and violated the guidelines of film certification issued under the Cinematograph Act, 1952.