A vacation Bench of Justices S J Kathawalla and U D Salvi on Monday permitted telecast of reality television show Bigg Boss at prime time (9 pm) following an undertaking from Colors channel that it will self-censor the programme. However,the Bench granted liberty to the Information and Broadcast (I&B) Ministry to approach the court without giving a show-cause notice to the channel in case it failed to honour its undertaking,according to which they wont violate rules,self-censor objectionable scenes and dialogues and wont provide clippings of the programme to any news channels henceforth. The Viacom18 Media Private Limited,which owns the channel,had approached the High Court on Saturday after the I&B Ministry once again directed them to shift show timings from 9 pm to 11 pm as its content was objectionable and not fit for children. Senior counsel Shyam Diwan and advocate Ameet Naik,while arguing for Viacom18,undertook that the channel would not screen any dialogue which was required to be beeped/and or screen any obscene gesture. After October 4,the channel had not telecast any episode which,according to the I&B Ministry,had an objectionable language or scene,said the petitioner. The show is about to end in two weeks time. Senior advocate G S Sharma,counsel for the I&B Ministry,argued that the purpose of directing the channel to shift the show to 11 pm was to prevent children from viewing it. On December 8,a Division Bench of the High Court had directed the I&B Ministry to issue a fresh show-cause notice to the petitioners,giving specific material against which it had objections. The ministry had issued a notice to Colors on November 16,directing it to shift the show timing as it offended good taste and decency.
