The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, has cancelled a planned campus screening of a documentary on jailed activist Umar Khalid after the Central Board of Film Certification objected to the event, The News Minute reported on Friday.
IIIT Hyderabad Director Sandeep Kumar Shukla said the institute had cancelled both the screening and the booking of the venue.
In an email to students, sent hours after the CBFC raised its objection, Shukla said no public or private screening would be permitted in institute premises, including laboratories, classrooms and offices, according to the report.
He said the organisers had not sought permission from the authorities and therefore the announcement of the screening was “not legitimate”.
The CBFC had asked the institute to take “necessary action” over the planned screening of Prisoner No. 626710 is Present at the KRB Auditorium.
The film certification body said on social media that publicly screening a documentary that had not been certified by it amounted to a violation of the Cinematograph Act, 1952, unless an exemption had been obtained under the law.
The CBFC also posted a screenshot of an invitation to the screening, which had been scheduled for Friday, five days after Political Prisoners’ Day.
The CBFC is a statutory body under the federal Information and Broadcasting Ministry and regulates the public exhibition of films under the Cinematograph Act.
Screening also postponed in Bengaluru
The development comes days after a student organisation at the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru postponed a screening of the documentary that had been scheduled for Sept. 14, following objections from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), The Hindu reported.
The ABVP is the student organisation associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which is the ideological parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The ABVP’s Bengaluru unit also wrote to federal ministers seeking permanent cancellation of the screening and a high-level inquiry into the university administration, according to the report.
Khalid’s detention
Khalid has been in judicial custody for six years in connection with a case arising from the 2020 communal violence in northeast Delhi. The trial has not yet begun.
Khalid, activist Sharjeel Imam and several others were arrested between January and September 2020 in connection with the violence that erupted in February that year between supporters and opponents of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The clashes killed 53 people and injured hundreds. Most of those killed were Muslims.
The accused face charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the Arms Act and provisions of the Indian Penal Code.
Police have alleged that the violence was part of a wider conspiracy aimed at discrediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and was planned by people involved in protests against the amended citizenship law.
The allegations are part of the prosecution’s case and are yet to be established at trial.
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