MUMBAI: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has directed the Centre to ensure that no law is violated when the Vidya Balan starrer Dirty Picture is telecast on Max channel on 22 April.

The directives were given by a division bench comprising Justices Umanath Singh and V K Dixit on a PIL filed by a lawyer Saurabh Shanker who had said that since Dirty Picture was an adult film, it should not be shown during the prime time. The court?s directive comes after it accepted the PIL.

Shanker had pleaded that he had no objection on the screening of the film, but it should not be made during the prime time. "The film can be telecast during the watershed hours between 2300 hrs and 0400 hrs," he said while citing the case of TV shows like ?Big Boss? and ?Sach Ka Samna?. He observed that telecast of adult film in the prime time was violation of the Cable TV Act.

Later, the Court disposed of the PIL after directing the Centre to ensure that no law is violated by screening the film.

NEW DELHI: The Press Council of India will challenge in the Supreme Court a directive by the Allahabad High Court prohibiting all media reports relating to troop movements.

PCI Chairman Justice Markandey Katja said in a statement: "With great respect to the High Court, I am of the opinion that the order of the High Court is not correct".

Katia said the Indian Army was not a colonial Army but of the Indian people who pay taxes for the entire defence budget. Hence, the people of India have a right to know about Army affairs, except when they compromise national security.

Meanwhile, National RTI Forum Convener Nutan Thakur is filing a caveat in the apex court since she has sought inquiries into two news reports.

Katju noted the media had done an excellent job in exposing the Adarsh and Sukna scams in which senior Army officers were involved and they were well within their fundamental right of freedom of the media under Article 19(1)(A) of the Constitution to do so.

The court had directed Secretaries in the Home Affairs and Information and Broadcasting Ministries along with Principal Secretary (Home) of the UP government to ensure there is no reporting or release of any news item related to movement of troops.

He said reporting troop movement near the Indian border or during war time should be prohibited as that may aid the enemy and cause harm to the armed forces by compromising national security. "However, in my opinion there can be no general prohibition on reporting of all troop movements," he said.

"I am of the opinion that without going into the question whether the news reporting was factually correct or not, there could not have been a valid prohibition of such reporting, because the troop movement was not at the Indian border or during war time," he said.