New Delhi: Is the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) no longer sharing details of the cuts it has ordered in films it certifies? It would appear so, going by a report in the Hindu that says an entire section on the censor board’s web site is no longer available. The CBFC has told the publication that that section will be up and running again after a “technical maintenance process”. However, it is unclear why only details of the cuts are no longer available while the rest of the site seems to be functioning as usual.The publication points out that Section 5A(2) of the Cinematograph Act, 1952, has an explicit mandate to publish certifications in the Gazette of India. The publication examined Gazette notifications at the Delhi Public Library to find periodic certificate updates from the CBFC from the previous century.It says the tabulated list of cuts has been unavailable since at least July 15.Earlier, film certification was not just public but accompanied with details of cuts, as seen in the image below, relating to Thai martial arts film Ong Bak 3 (dir. Tony Jaa, Panna Rittikrai, 2010). Scenes depicting violence then consdered inappropriate for Indian audiences have been sliced out in this ‘Special Cut’ of the movie.A digital copy of a CBFC certificate generated through the e-CinePramaan system for Ong Bak 3, a Thai production, accompanied with details of the cuts made, as preserved on The Internet Archive, October 2019.The Hindu reports that until 2017, when the e-CinePramaan portal was launched as a part of a digitisation drive, cut lists were searchable on the CBFC’s website as well.To be clear, the CBFC now has two sites: a main website accessible to all, which still has a searchable directory of certified films but no longer displays cuts ordered by the board.It also runs the e-CinePramaam portal, which is only accessible by logging in as a film maker, producer or “business” user – it is the digital system through which producers can apply for certification before their film can be publicly exhibited. On e-Cinepramaan as well, the cuts have gone missing in the form of a clear tabulation – at least for now.Instead of that list, reports the Hindu, visitors to the portal now get the message: “Part II of the certificate [the cut list] is currently under maintenance.”The e-CinePramaan portal is not for public use, with registration requirements including “proof” of identity, company and address, orienting it towards ‘business’ users.Meanwhile, the public-facing website of the CBFC has only a list of certified films available and other statistical sections detailing how many films and what kind of films have been certified since 2017. In short, everything but the cuts is available for all to view.A list of certified films is available on the web site of CBFC, in the form of a simple image with no details of cuts.The Hindu report also points out that the censor board has steadily eroded public access to cuts and their details. This is visible in the certification for Home, a Telugu (dubbed) movie whose certificate, retreived from 2025, has no cuts-related details.A digital copy of a CBFC certificate generated through the e-CinePramaan system for the Telugu film ‘Home’, from The Internet Archive, August 12, 2025. It does not feature detailed cuts made. Films until July accessed on the archive indicate full certification details were provided, including cuts.The Hindu writes that the CBFC made accessing batches of cut information impossible sometime in mid-2025. “Many descriptions within cut lists have also become less detailed, excluding the specific information about scenes or dialogues,” it reports.The film certification board has recently banned, censored or delayed a variety of creative projects including Honey Trehan’s Satluj, a Billie Elish concert film and H. Vinoth’s Jana Nayagan (starring now Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay). The buzz according to Hollywood Hungama is that Spiderman has been censored for language and an eight-second kiss in Spider-man: Brand New Day (dir. Destin Daniel Cretton, 2026).(The Internet Archive/Waback Machine is a digital library that preserves and provides access to archived websites, documents and other records.)