CUTTACK: In a significant judgment, the Orissa high court has invalidated the 31st Odisha State Film Awards-2019 declared by the state government on November 5, 2021.
Accordingly, the court directed the authorities to publish a fresh list of nomination within a month keeping in mind the rules that govern the procedure and by excluding two films that the court found were not original works.
"The movies - "Khusi" and "Golmal Love" shall not be considered for any award category in the fresh list and the 31st Odisha State Film Award-2019 shall be declared within one month from today," the single-judge bench of Justice S K Panigrahi said in his January 11 judgment, the full text of which was available on Wednesday.
The judgment came on the petition filed by Odia film director Bobby Islam challenging the legality of the selection list for the awards. Bobby alleged that the Jury selected "Khusi" for awards in best actor, best actress, best editor and best child artist categories when the film was a remake of a Korean film - Hope. The jury had also selected "Golmal Love" for award in the best comedy artist category even when it is a copy of Carry on Jatta - a Punjabi film.
While delivering the judgment Justice S K Panigrahi said, "Considering a comparison of the impugned films with the plot and scenes in the Korean film Hope and Punjabi film "Carry on Jatta ", it is clear that from the plethora of facts, circumstances and stated overlap that the impugned motion films are uncredited remakes of the aforementioned non-Odia films".
"These films have been manipulated slightly to evade the scanner of an uncanny resemblance. Otherwise, the impugned films are scene-by-scene copies of the impugned non-Odia films. The content of the films cannot be called 'original' with respect to Orissa Film Award Rules from any angle of judgement," Justice Panigrahi observed.
"The manner in which the impugned films were considered and declared the winners of the prestigious Odia State Cine Awards is a matter of great embarrassment and concern for the Odia cinema and artiste community," Justice also observed.
"The irregularities as seen in this case could easily have been avoided had the jury been a little more vigilant and mindful of their position of great responsibility. The jury members are great stalwarts of Odia cinema and nothing but the highest standards of integrity and vision is expected of them. I firmly believe that the jury would be impartial and truthful in their approach and strive to represent a vision of evolutionary creativity that is espoused in the industry," Justice Panigrahi observed.
The judge said, "the jury should be mindful that their duty is the application of standards of highest quality to the matters of consideration, that the state is an institution of law and not of men. The jury should fulfil their duty with a due regard to the integrity of the system of the law and integrity of arts, remembering that he/she is not a depositary of arbitrary power, but a judge with the responsibility to uphold the integrity of themselves as well as the institution".
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