On Tuesday, the Supreme Court declined to hear a plea immediately seeking a stay on the release of The Kerala Story. The film has become quite controversial in recent times.
As the film will release on Friday, Senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Nizam Pasha urged the bench to hear their plea.
Observing that the censor board has already passed the film, a bench comprising Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna said that the petitioners should rather challenge the film's certification before the appropriate authority. The bench, which is currently hearing cases regarding hate speeches, said that the exhibition of films entails a different process. The plea seeking a stay can, therefore, not be combined with the hate speech case.
Submitting the YouTube trailer of the film, Pasha said that it has already garnered 16 million views so far making it the worst example of hate speech and that this is audio-visual propaganda.
Saying, "This has gone through certification. We cannot make it a part of the hate speech case," the bench further added, "You should move the high court or any other appropriate forum, but this cannot be here."
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. You cannot start everything here at the Supreme Court..."
Kapil Sibal then urged the bench to take a call after looking at the transcript of the YouTube trailer during the lunch recess. He then added that they will also file a petition by Wednesday.
Starring Adah Sharma and directed by Sudipto Sen, The Kerala Story became a subject of major controversy after it claimed that 32,000 women have left the state. As of now, the film is scheduled to hit theatres on May 5.
