VINOD KUMAR KANOJIA Vs. UOI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, Vinod Kumar Kanojia, has preferred this public interest litigation on behalf of the Hindustan Kanojia Organization (a community of 'Dhobis', scheduled caste in India) after coming to know from a news item published in 'Amar Ujala' Dehradun Hindi newspaper on 20th July, 2010 that a film in the name of 'Dhobi Ghat' is going to be released in December, 2010 and the name of the film has affected the sensitivity and created a dent in the feeling of the community.

(2.) Mr. Ajay Kumar Bhatia, learned Counsel for the petitioner, has referred to the long history of the depressed and also reproduced the storyline in the writ petition to highlight the contention that the said storyline has nothing to do with the 'dhobi ghat' and further the use of the word 'dhobi' is an insult to the Scheduled Caste and has affected the feelings of the persons belonging to the said particular caste. It is urged by the learned Counsel for the petitioner that the name of the movie as 'Dhobi Ghat' violates Section 3(1)(x) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (for short 'the 1989 Act'). The learned Counsel has also commended us to the decision in Swaran Singh and Ors. v. State and Anr., 2008 8 SCC 435. He has placed heavy reliance on paragraphs 14 and 27 and for the sake completeness, we reproduce the said paragraphs:

(3.) At this juncture, we may note with profit that cinema as a medium of expression and as a mode of entertainment has reached an enviable status in the modern world. The Indian cinema has a different conception from its inception inasmuch as myths, historical events, poignant novels, biographical sketches along with melodious songs have dominated the silver screen. The term 'cinema' is an abbreviation of the term 'cinematograph' or 'kinematograph'. In the first half of the 20th century, it became popular and gained the status of qualitative entertainment. Initially, it was regarded as a trick photography and thereafter, it earned the status of an art. With the passage of time, certain pictures were contrived and there was no sound. In the third decade of the last century, 'talkies' arrived and in the year 1926, introduction of sound transformation and technical form of film production took place and slowly colour photography was introduced and factors in size and quality of the image changed.