DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY VISAKHAPATNAM

8th Intra Moot Court Competition, 2021

Moot Proposition

1. Republic of Bindia is a democratic country with more than a billion population. India has a
rich history of arts and culture from times immemorial, theater arts have been preferred
choices of entertainment and leisure, it gradually took a new shape and format of cinema
many years later.

2. Over the years, Bindian Cinema has become one of the biggest industries in the World. One
film out of every five made anywhere comes from Bindia. Although the popular language in
which the movies are produced in Bindi, almost every regional language of Bindia has its
own film industry catering for their respective areas. From its beginnings under colonial rule
through to the heights of Bollywood, Bindian cinema has challenged social injustices such as
caste, the oppression of Bindian women, religious intolerance, rural poverty, and the
pressures of life in the burgeoning cities.

3. The theaters (including cinema halls and multiplexes) where the movies are exhibited have
been the go-to places for people of various socio-economic backgrounds, the theaters had a
seat for everyone, right from economy to the luxury, attracting people from all walks of life
to get their dose of entertainment. Multiplex theaters made the experience of movie viewing
a rich experience and offered popcorn, shopping and gaming zones in and around the theater
premises and pocketed huge revenues. At an average a middle-class family spends around
2000 to 3000 rupees on each visit to a theater. The crowd attracts not just positive elements
but also gives ample scope for negative elements like pick pocketing, petty thefts, black
tickets, eve teasers, heavy traffic jams etc. Keeping a regular watch on the nearby theaters has
become a routine of the local civil and traffic police departments.

4. In the recent past, the technological advancement prompted the advent of the Video of
Demand (“VOD”) technology, wherein the viewers had the choice of watching his/her
favorite movie at a click of button at a time he/she wanted to watch. This changed the

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8th Intra Moot Court Competition, 2021
Moot Proposition

dynamics of movie viewership and forced film makers and industry leaders to strike a
balance between VOD Television and theater viewership. In an attempt to co-exist, all the
stakeholders of the industry cinema came to an understanding and struck an arrangement.
The arrangement was such that the filmmakers struck VOD deals and ensured such newly
made movies were available for viewing on VOD platforms only after the completion of 30
days period of theater exhibition and subsequently on TV for larger set of audiences.
Traditionally, the producer used to earn his revenue through selling movie rights to the
theaters and TV later on, the advent of VOD ensured that the producers has an added source
of revenue but the distributors, exhibitors and theater staff who were heavily dependent on
the movie exhibition sensed that the movie viewership has transformed in more than one way
and the VOD platforms may soon take their jobs away.

5. The Bindian cinema industry, which is a home for many heroes and villains, has met with a
real villain i.e., the respiratory illness “Covid-19” caused by SARS-CoV-2 Virus. For Covid-
19 being a highly contagious disease, which rapidly spreads from the person to person,
isolation and social distancing have become necessities. The social life of the society has
come to a complete standstill, all across the world. The cinema industry, along with other
industries, took a huge blow on their businesses. To control the spread of this novel disease,
the central government has in March 2020 issued a GO (GO No. 35/HM/2020) whereby
imposing a blanket ban on all the theaters in the country and directed them not to
open/function until further orders, making a few lakhs of people jobless, and causing a
revenue loss to the cinema industry and of approximately 150 crores every month. In October
2020, when the cases of Covid-19 started to decline, the central government has issued
another GO (GO No. 180/HM/2020) permitting the theaters to function with less than 70%
seating capacity and ensuring 3 feet distance between the seats in the theater. With this, the
theaters and other businesses dependent on theaters have prepared to reopen and rejuvenate.
6. The outbreak of Covid-19 has forced the society to search for alternatives for all the outdoor
activities, including watching movies in theaters. This gave a huge push to the existing VOD

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8th Intra Moot Court Competition, 2021
Moot Proposition

platforms, which are popularly known as Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms. People, who were
restricted from coming out of their respective homes, opted these OTT platforms as a source
of entertainment. The OTT platforms initially featured few popular old films, which were
already premiered in the theaters and a few serials and shows which were exclusively
produced by those OTT platforms. And since past two months, that is when the theaters were
already shut for six months by then, producers of a few small movies, which are actually
made with an intention to release them in theaters, have for the first time released their
movies via OTT platforms, without any intervention of distributers and theaters. This move
of those small producers was a result of extreme financial pressure faced by them, and the
lucrative offers proposed by the OTT platforms. And by now a majority of the producers
have already decided to release their upcoming movies via various OTT platforms, which has
been a major concern of all the stakeholders of the cinema industry, as destroying the
business of theaters causes destruction of livelihood of a large number workers in the cinema
industry and the industries dependent on the theaters.

7. One of the significant differences between the theater release and OTT release is the that
there is no legal requirement of pre-publication censor certification for the content telecasted
in OTT platforms, whereas certification from Central Council of Film Certification (CCFC)
is mandatory for release of any content in the theaters. Although the majority of OTT
platforms have organized themselves into an association named “Federation of OTT
Platforms” (FOP), which in turn has established a self-regulating body Federal OTT
Regulatory Association (FORA), which is working independently with an objective to
restrict or regulate violent and obscene content from being telecasted via OTT platforms
which are a part of FORA. The working of FORA seems highly ineffective as a few directors
and producers have already released a few movies via OTT platforms, which are filled with
obscene and violent content and some being not part of the association gave them a free hand
to adhere to such regulations. Those movies could have never passed the screening test of
CCFC and hence could never be released in theaters.

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8th Intra Moot Court Competition, 2021
Moot Proposition

8. Recently a director cum producer named Ravi Gopal Verma (RGV) has made and released a
movie named “Romance and Crime” in a major OTT platform. This movie was in clear
violation of guidelines issued by FORA, but no one could stop the release of that movie
because RGV was an influential person in the cinema industry. The movie “Romance and
Crime” seem to have no other objective than to show some obscene and violent content to the
youth and make money from it. The movie has shown women, including minor girls, in a
very degrading manner and did contain unacceptable amount of obscenity in it. Release of
this has irked a widespread unrest amongst the women of the nation, who has carried out
various rallies and demonstrations in the country, until the Supreme Court has finally after
three weeks of it release directed the concerned OTT platform not to telecast that specific
movie. But by then enough damage was already done by that movie.

9. Thereafter, National Women Association (NWA), a prominent non-governmental

organisation working for the betterment of the conditions of women in the country, has filed
a PIL [WP No: 111/2020] in the Supreme Court of Bindia, praying the apex court to direct
the Central Government to enact and publish concerned guidelines regarding the censorship
of content telecasted by OTT platforms thereby prohibiting release of any uncensored content
via OTT platforms, and also to grant injunction prohibiting release of any movie or serial in
any OTT platform until publication of such guidelines by central government.

10. While during the pendency of the PIL filed by NWA, All Bindia Distributers Guild (ABDG),
an association formed by majority of the movie distributers of the country, has filed a writ
petition [WP No: 222/2020] in the Supreme Court contending inter alia that (a) differential
treatment of the OTT platforms on one hand and theaters on the other hand in respect of
censorship by the Government is violative of the principles of equality, (b) government
encouraging release of movies directly in OTT platforms will result in destruction of the
entire theater industry and industries dependent on theaters, and thereby destroys the

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8th Intra Moot Court Competition, 2021
Moot Proposition

livelihood of lakhs of citizens of Bindia and (c) the release of movies in OTT platforms
completely makes the implementation of the anti-piracy laws in practice almost impossible
and completely ineffective. ABDG has, based on above detailed arguments, prayed the
Supreme Court to prohibit the release of any movie of more than 5 crore budget in any OTT
platforms until expiry of 14 days from the release of such movie in theaters.

11. Another PIL [WP No: 333/2020] was filed in High Court of Haritha Pradesh (one of the
constituent states of Union of Bindia) by Bindian School Parents Association praying the
court to issue guidelines prohibiting telecasting of adult/violent/disturbing content (not just
movies) in OTT platforms on the grounds that for majority of OTT platforms doesn’t have
the option of parental control, and even in the presence of such parental control, the 21st
generation children are technologically smart enough to dodge such parental control
mechanisms and access adult and violent content in the OTT platforms, which may affect the
mental and physical health of children, and may also result in addiction.
12. As all three petitions deal with similar issues, the Supreme Court has grouped the all three
petitions to be commonly heard in the Supreme Court, wherein petitioners of all three
petitions will be joint petitioners on one hand, and the Central Government and Federation of
OTT Platforms (FOP) will be joint respondents.

13. The joint respondents have primarily contended that the unreasonable restrictions on telecast
of content in OTT platforms will violate article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of Bindia, and
that OTT platforms, which are more affordable, which have more reach, which promotes
innovation and cross language entertainment, and which is more flexible and evolves along
with the needs of the changing society should rather be encouraged that to be restricted or
limited.

14. The Supreme Court has posted these proceedings for final hearing on the 26th day of
February 2021.

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 DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY VISAKHAPATNAM
8th Intra Moot Court Competition, 2021
Moot Proposition

NOTE:

1. The laws of Republic of Bindia are in Pari-Materia with the Laws of India
2. Any law notified post January 23, 2021 are not applicable to this proposition.

THE END