The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to listen to on Friday a petition filed by the producers of ‘The Kerala Story’ film difficult the ban on the movie’s screening in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu leading to enormous losses.
West Bengal is the one state to impose a ban on the movie that launched on Friday. (Twitter | Adah Sharma)
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud posted the matter for listening to on May 12 after the matter was talked about for pressing itemizing on Wednesday.
The bench, additionally together with justice PS Narasimha, initially supplied to have the matter heard on Monday together with one other petition which has challenged the Kerala excessive court docket order of May 5 refusing keep on the discharge of the movie.
Also Read: ‘Opposing parties stand with terror organisations’: Smriti Irani on ‘The Kerala Story’
Senior advocate Harish Salve who represented the movie producers – Sunshine Pictures Private Limited and Vipul Amrutlal Shah, informed the Court, “We are losing money every day, and now another state has also decided to impose a ban.”
Taking notice, the bench agreed to listing the matter this week.
West Bengal is the one state to impose a ban on the movie that launched on Friday.
In Tamil Nadu, the theatre and multiplex homeowners have issued orders to ban the screening in cinema halls following an ‘alert’ issued by the state authorities on attainable incidents of violence.
The ban in West Bengal issued below Section 6(1) of the West Bengal Cinemas (Regulation) Act on May 8 mentioned that the screening of the movie is ‘likely to cause breach of peace’ and to keep away from incidents of hatred and violence, the ban is being imposed.
The petition filed by way of advocate Yugandhara Pawar Jha mentioned, “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 movie 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 launch of the movie.
The producers mentioned that such a ban will give impetus for pirated DVDs of the film aimed to dent the income from the movie.
Besides, the producers have sought to be compensated for submitting this petition claiming that even previous to the movie’s launch, they’ve been dragged to Kerala and Madras excessive courts, every of which has refused to remain the film’s launch.
The Kerala HC had on Friday watched the film’s trailer and refused keep saying, “We find that trailer (of the movie) does not contain anything offensive to any particular community as a whole.” Even the film makers had put out a disclaimer to the impact that the film is fictionalised and presents a dramatised model of occasions.
Against this order, an attraction by journalist Qurban Ali was talked about earlier than the highest court docket on Tuesday which agreed to contemplate the identical subsequent week.
Source: www.hindustantimes.com
