Apex Court Refuses To Halt Release of ‘The Kerala Story’ A Film Based on The Theme of Religious Conversion
(Judicial Quest News Network)
Hyderabad, May, 02, 2023: The Apex Court on today declined to entertain a plea seeking a stay on the release of the movie ‘The Kerala Story’.
A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna was told by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Advocate Nizam Pasaha that the trailer of the movie, which is scheduled to be released on Friday.
It is submitted that the censor board has already cleared the movie and the petitioners should rather challenge the film’s certification before an appropriate authority.
The interlocutory application (IA), was filed I a pending writ petition which was filed seeking action against hate speech crimes. Mentioning the application for urgent listing, the Lawyer submitted that the movie “is the worst instance of hate speech “and that it was audio-visual hate propaganda’.
However the Apex Court asked the petitioners that why can’t they move the High Court seek the remedy there because everything can’t start with the Supreme Court.
Further it was submitted that the trailer has crossed already 16 million views and the movie is slated to release in multiple languages-Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu.
Advocate Nizam Pasha has submitted that the you tube trailer of the movie already had extensive viewership so far and this is the worst instance of hate speech and this is audio-visual propaganda.
The bench orally observed that there is a difference between this and “other matters you brought to our notice. Why don’t you move the concerned high court first?”
Declining to entertain the plea, the bench said, “This has gone through a process of certification. Unless you challenge the certification, we can’t do anything… You should go to the jurisdictional high court.
