Chennai: The Madras High Court has ordered that actor Vijay’s film ‘Jan Nayakan’ be sent back to the Review Committee and that the case be heard again by a single judge bench.
The production company had applied for a censor certificate for actor Vijay’s film ‘Jan Nayakan’ with the Censor Board on December 18, 2025. The Censor Board accepted the application on December 19 and viewed the film on December 22. Following this, it advised the production company that a U/A 16+ certificate would be issued if certain scenes in the film were modified.
Based on this advice, the production company removed some scenes and resubmitted the film to the board for a censor certificate on December 24. Subsequently, on December 29, the Censor Board informed the production company that it had decided to grant a U/A 16+ certificate to the film ‘Jan Nayakan’.
However, the film’s production team was unable to upload the film to the Censor Board’s official website for certification. The production company informed the Censor Board about this on December 31 and January 1, but received no response.
On January 5, the Censor Board Chairman informed the production company that the film would be sent to the Review Committee due to the presence of scenes containing “security force emblems.” Following this, the production company filed a case in the Madras High Court against the Chairman’s decision to send the film for review, as some scenes had already been removed and a U/A 16+ certificate had been promised.
Hearing the case, the single judge bench quashed the Censor Board Chairman’s decision ordering a re-review of the film ‘Jan Nayakan’, given that significant changes had been made to the film and it was deemed eligible for a UA 16+ certificate.
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) appealed against this order of the single judge bench in the Madras High Court. Hearing the appeal, the bench of Chief Justice MM Srivastava stated that it was wrong for the Censor Board to issue a decision without giving sufficient time and placed an interim stay on the single-judge bench’s order of January 9.
Following this, the production company of ‘Jan Nayakan’ appealed to the Supreme Court against the High Court’s stay order. After hearing the case, the Supreme Court ruled that it could not interfere with the High Court’s stay order.
Meanwhile, on January 20, arguments were presented before the High Court Chief Justice’s bench by both the Censor Board and the film production company. After hearing arguments from both sides, the bench reserved its judgment.
The bench of Chief Justice MM Srivastava and Justice Arul Murugan pronounced its judgment on the film ‘Jan Nayakan’ on January 27. The judgment stated that the film had been sent for review again based on a complaint from a member of the Review Committee. Scenes depicting religious symbols and symbols of the security forces were to be reviewed.
The judgment further stated that there was no error in sending the film ‘Jan Nayakan’ to the Expert Committee for approval due to the use of army symbols. Therefore, the single-judge bench’s order granting the certificate was set aside. The judgment directed the single-judge bench to conduct a fresh hearing after giving sufficient time to the Censor Board and then pronounce its decision.
