The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) filed an appeal, and the Madras High Court stayed Jana Nayagan's certification following the initial clearance on January 9. The case will now be heard by the court on January 21.

Thus, the movie starring Thalapathy Vijay won't be out until January 21. Unless, of course, KVN Productions, the creators of Jana Nayagan, petition the Supreme Court for relief.

The movie's distributor, SSR Entertainment, announced the new release date of January 14 after the Madras High Court earlier today ordered CBFC to give Jana Nayagan a censor certificate. But the manufacturers did not provide the official confirmation. The movie's advance reservations had reportedly begun to open up once more.

A division bench made up of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan granted the Madras High Court stay after Additional Solicitor General ARL Sundaresan and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta presented the CBFC's appeal grounds and argued the case via video conference.

A division bench consisting of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan stated in a Live Law report: "One major complaint of the Union of India was that they were not given enough time to respond. Another complaint is that the January 6 letter was quashed by the court (a single judge) without being contested. There was no urgency, according to respondents. All things considered, the respondents were not given a certificate.

Noting that the appeal was mentioned minutes after the single judge's ruling, the Chief Justice also questioned the urgency of filing the appeal on the same day. In response, Additional Solicitor General ARL Sundaresan stated that the CBFC was not given enough time to submit a counterargument and that the single judge's proceedings were expedited. He explained the timeline, saying, "The petition was filed on January 5th. It was brought before the court on the sixth. The letter, which is an introductory review of certification, was required of us. On the seventh, we produced it. On the seventh, we presented the Bombay complaint in an envelope. Orders were passed today after the matter was heard on the 7th afternoon.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta made the following argument while representing the CBFC: "Moulding the relief would not include setting aside an order that is not challenged." Moulding would only be providing something related to what was requested.

A member of the CBFC committee itself filed the complaint, according to Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who was representing the producers KVN Productions. But by setting a release date without a certificate, the producers had created a false sense of urgency, the court noted orally, saying, "You're creating an urgency and putting pressure on court. It is not possible to set a release date and exert pressure on the system.

Keep checking back for more information about the Jana Nayagan censor certificate row.

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