The Kerala Story: SC asks petitioners to approach appropriate forum to stop release of ‘propaganda’ film
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to consider an interlocutory application filed against the release of the controversial movie ‘The Kerala Story’ besides urging the petitioners to approach the appropriate forum in the wake of clearance from the Censor Board for the film.
The application was filed in a pending writ petition seeking action against hate speech crimes, according to Live Law.
Advocate Nizam Pasha, who filed the interlocutory application, argued that the movie was "the worst instance of hate speech" and "audio-visual hate propaganda". However, the bench comprising Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna observed that challenging the release of a movie through an interlocutory application was not an appropriate remedy.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal later joined the proceedings and requested the bench to read the transcript of the teaser and the trailer of the movie. Sibal also mentioned that the trailer had already crossed 16 million views, and the movie was slated to release in multiple languages. However, the bench expressed its difficulty in considering the challenge in an interlocutory application.
Justice Joseph pointed out that once a movie had been certified by the Central Board of Film Certification, the Courts could not interfere unless the certification was challenged in a substantive petition. Sibal agreed and said that he would file a substantive petition seeking urgent listing by mentioning before the Chief Justice of India.
The film, directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, has attracted controversy for making claims that nearly 32,000 women from Kerala were converted through deceit into Islam and forced to join ISIS. The movie has been criticized by the ruling party of the state CPI(M) and the opposition Congress, who have accused it of peddling false propaganda to create communal hatred and to portray the state in a bad light.
Although Sibal argued that the present recourse was adopted in view of the limited time available before the movie's release, the bench said that every challenge could not start with the Supreme Court. Justice Nagarathna remarked, "You can't start everything at the Supreme Court."
Based on Tuesday's proceedings, the case is likely to be raised before the apex court in a substantive petition on Wednesday.
