The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on Friday a petition filed by the producers of ‘The Kerala Story’ movie challenging the ban on the film’s screening in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu resulting in huge losses.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud posted the matter for hearing on May 12 after the matter was mentioned for urgent listing on Wednesday.
The bench, also including justice PS Narasimha, initially offered to have the matter heard on Monday along with another petition which has challenged the Kerala high court order of May 5 refusing stay on the release of the film.
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Senior advocate Harish Salve who represented the film producers – Sunshine Pictures Private Limited and Vipul Amrutlal Shah, told the Court, “We are losing money every day, and now another state has also decided to impose a ban.”
Taking note, the bench agreed to list the matter this week.
{{/usCountry}}Taking note, the bench agreed to list the matter this week.
{{/usCountry}}West Bengal is the only state to impose a ban on the film that released on Friday.
In Tamil Nadu, the theatre and multiplex owners have issued orders to ban the screening in cinema halls following an ‘alert’ issued by the state government on possible incidents of violence.
The ban in West Bengal issued under Section 6(1) of the West Bengal Cinemas (Regulation) Act on May 8 said that the screening of the film is ‘likely to cause breach of peace’ and to avoid incidents of hatred and violence, the ban is being imposed.
The petition filed through advocate Yugandhara Pawar Jha said, “State cannot cite purported considerations of law and order in banning the exhibition of a film that has been duly certified for public exhibition in accordance with applicable law. Any such ban would constitute an unreasonable restriction on the fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India to engage in free speech.”
Moreover, it argued that the film has been cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
The petition prayed to the Court to direct West Bengal and Tamil Nadu to pay ‘remedial compensation’ for the ‘grave and irreparable financial loss’ on account of the fragmented release of the film.
The producers said that such a ban will give impetus for pirated DVDs of the movie aimed to dent the revenue from the film.
Besides, the producers have sought to be compensated for filing this petition claiming that even prior to the film’s release, they have been dragged to Kerala and Madras high courts, each of which has refused to stay the movie’s release.
The Kerala HC had on Friday watched the movie’s trailer and refused stay saying, “We find that trailer (of the movie) does not contain anything offensive to any particular community as a whole.” Even the movie makers had put out a disclaimer to the effect that the movie is fictionalised and presents a dramatised version of events.
Against this order, an appeal by journalist Qurban Ali was mentioned before the top court on Tuesday which agreed to consider the same next week.