There are a couple of interesting things right off the bat. The Cinematograph Act, 1952 has never governed television programmes and serials and does not in any form mandate that a Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) certification is a pre-requisite for exhibiting content. The mandate for any programme (including films) exhibited on cable television being required to be certified by the CBFC came from the Programme Code under the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994 (CTN Rules). Now, while the CTN Rules were only concerned with ‘cable television network’, the Cinematograph Bill neither creates any such distinction nor defines ‘television’. Interestingly, Clause 4(3) is only concerned with ‘films’ (which are defined as cinematograph films under the Cinematograph Act) and arguably doesn’t extend to programmes, serials, etc.
Further, unlike Clause 4(1) of the Bill, which mandates CBFC certification for exhibition of a film, this provision uses the word ‘may’ to suggest that it is in fact not mandatory to obtain certification for films planned to be exhibited on television (which arguably means that barring ‘cable television network’, for all other television forms, there is no obligation to obtain a certificate).
Source: Barandbench
