Pre-certification of movies could not be done away with as it had stood the test of time and continued to be relevant, the Centre has told the Supreme Court. It also said the censor board did not do moral policing as only a minuscule number of films were rejected.

Pre-censorship of films before public screening was "absolutely necessary" to ensure sensitivity and sensibility with even developed countries continuing with censor boards despite the increasing dominance of TV and internet, the Centre and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) said in a joint affidavit. They refuted the charge that CBFC was a "sanskari board" scrubbing abusive words and intimate scenes, saying only 0.03% of films were rejected by the board.