New Delhi: Supreme Court on Tuesday, once again, said, it will hear on May 15 the appeal against Kerala High Court’s order refusing to stay the release of film ‘The Kerala Story’.
After the Kerala High Court in its order recently refused to stay the Film, senior lawyer, Kapil Sibal on Tuesday once again mentioned the matter before the Apex Court, and said, “we are seeking urgent hearing into the matter.
He challenged the Kerala HC order refusing to stay the release of the movie or to take down the trailer and other clips.
The film was released pan-India on May 5.
The bench of the top court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dr Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chadrachud, agreed to list the matter for hearing on May 15.
“We will list it for May 15,” the CJI said.
Kerala High Court in its order on May 5 had refused to stay the film and noted that after watching the trailer of the movie, it does not find “anything offensive to any particular community as a whole.”
The Kerala Story’ is a Hindi film about a group of women from the Southern Indian state of Kerala who join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The Kerala High Court’s two-judge Bench, headed by Justice N Nagaresh and also comprising Justice Sophy Thomas, had heard a batch of petitions seeking to cancel the censor certificate of the film and staying of the film from release.
“After going through the trailers of the movie, we find it does not contain anything offensive to any particular community as a whole. None of the petitioners have watched the movie,” the court noted in its order.
“What is against Islam? There is no allegation against the religion. The allegation is against ISIS,” the bench observed.
“There are umpteen number of movies where Hindu sanyasis are depicted as smugglers or rapists. Nothing happens, no one protests. Many such Hindi and Malayalam films are there,” the Kerala HC said.
“This is fiction! Merely because some religious head is shown in bad light is not a reason to ban the movie. This has been happening in Hindi and Malayalam movies for a long time,” the bench observed.
