Certification Without Accountability - A Critical Re-Examination Of Film And OTT Censorship In India, 2021-2026

Abstract

Between 2021 and 2026, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has moved with increasing frequency from classifying films by age-appropriateness, its actual statutory function under the Cinematograph Act 1952, toward editorially reshaping or indefinitely delaying films on grounds of historical accuracy, religious sentiment, caste, and political content. This paper examines multiple such cases between 2021 and 2026, distinguishes CBFC action from state-government bans and court-ordered stays that are often conflated with it, and identifies the specific constitutional provisions, Articles 19(1)(a), 19(1)(g), 21, and the manifest-arbitrariness strand of Article 14, that this pattern implicates. It tests the Board's own stated justifications against the case record, compares India's certification architecture with the voluntary United States model and the independent United Kingdom model, and argues that the deficiency is procedural rather than doctrinal: India's substantive certification standards are not obviously more restrictive than its comparators, but the 2021 abolition of the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal removed the one low-cost check on their arbitrary application, and nothing has replaced it.