BOBBY ART INTERNATIONAL Vs. OM PAL SINGH HOON

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Special leave granted.

(2.) These appeals impugn the judgment and order of a Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi in Letters Patent Appeals. The Letters Patent Appeals challenged the judgment and order of a learned single judge allowing a writ petition. The Letter Patent Appeals were dismissed, subject to a direction to the Union of India (the second respondent). The writ petition was filed by the first respondent to quash the certificate of exhibition awarded to the film "Bandit Queen" and to restrain its exhibition in India. The film deals with the life of Phoolan Devi. It is based upon a true story. Still a child, Phoolan Devi was married off to a man old enough to be her father. She was beaten and raped by him. She was tormented by the boys of the village; and beaten by them when she foiled the advances of one of them. A village panchayat called after the incident blamed Phoolan Devi for attempting to entice the boy, who belonged to a higher caste. Consequent upon the decision of the village panchyat, Phoolan Devi had to leave the village. She was then arrested by the police and subjected to indignity and humiliation in the police station. Upon the intervention of some persons she was released on bail; their intervention was not due to compassion but to satisfy their carnal appetite. Phoolan Devi was thereafter kidnapped by dacoits and sexually brutalised by their leader, a man named Babu Gujjar. Another member of the gang, Vikram Mallah, shot Babu Gujjar dead in a fit of rage while he was assaulting Phoolan Devi. Phoolan Devi was attracted by Vikram Mallah and threw her lot in with him. Along with Vikram Mallah she accosted her husband, tied him to a tree and took her revenge by brutally beating him. One Sri Ram, the leader of gang of Thakurs, who had been released from jail, made advances to Phoolan Devi and was spurned. He killed Vikaram Mallah. Having lost Vikram Mallah's protection, Phoolan Devi was gangraped by Sri Ram, Lalaram and others. She was stripped naked, paraded and made to fetch water from the village's well under the gaze of the villagers, but no one came to her rescue. To avenge herself upon her persecutors, she joined a dacoits' gang headed by Baba Mustkin. In avenging herself upon Sri Ram, she humiliated and killed twenty Thakurs of the village of Behmai. Ultimately, she surrendered and was in jail for a number of years. (We have not viewed the film. The story thereof as set out above comes from the judgment under appeal.)

(3.) The film is based on a book written by Mala Sen called "India's Bandi Queen". The book has been in the market since the year 1991 without objection.