SC to hear appeal against HC refusal to stay The Kerala Story release on Monday
A petition claimed that ‘The Kerala Story’ movie amounts to hate speech as it claims that nearly 32,000 girls from Kerala are lured to join ISIS by their Muslim friends
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on Monday a petition challenging the refusal of the Kerala high court declining stay of the movie ‘The Kerala Story’.
An appeal against the order passed by the high court on May 5 was mentioned by senior advocate Kapil Sibal before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud on Tuesday.
Arguing the appeal filed by journalist Qurban Ali, Sibal told the court that the appeal requires urgent hearing as the high court has refused to grant interim stay on the movie’s release last Friday.
The bench, also comprising justice PS Narasimha agreed to list the appeal on Monday.
The high court order by a division bench of justices N Nagaresh and Sophy Thomas was passed after the judges watched the teaser of the movie. A bunch of petitions had sought stay on the movie’s release and even objected to the certification given by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
The petition filed by Ali claimed that the movie amounts to hate speech as it claims that nearly 32,000 girls from Kerala are lured to join ISIS by their Muslim friends. This tends to create enmity and hatred among different groups, Ali had argued in the high court seeking stay on the movie’s release.
The high court order said, “We find that trailers (of the movie) does not contain anything offensive to any particular community as a whole.” The HC sought to rely on the wisdom of the CBFC which had examined the movie and found it suitable for public exhibition. Even the petitioners before the HC claimed they had not watched the film.
The HC noted that the film producers have published a disclaimer with the movie stating that the movie has been fictionalised and presents a dramatised version of events. The story of the movie revolves around the lives of three girls from Kerala who narrate their ordeal of being trapped in marriage after converting to Islam and taken to Afghanistan where they are forced to join terrorist outfit ISIS.
The publication of the disclaimer was also a ground for the high court not to order stay of the release.
Prior to the movie’s release, the Supreme Court had on three occasions refused to order stay and asked all petitions to be filed before the Kerala high court where similar matters were pending. The top court had even urged those seeking stay on the film to be mindful of the money and hard labours of actors that goes into making of the movie.
The West Bengal government recently banned screening of the movie in the state in the interest of “preserving harmony” while theatre owners in Tamil Nadu decided to stop the screening owing to “poor response”.
