New Delhi: The Kerala Story, a contentious film, has been cleared by the censor board, so the petitioners should instead challenge the certification of the film before an appropriate authority, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday in response to a request for a stay on the release of the film.
Senior attorney Kapil Sibal and counsel Nizam Pasha informed the justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna bench that the film’s trailer, which will be released on Friday, has received 16 million views.
Supreme Court refuses to stop release of The Kerala Story
Mr Pasha claimed, “This movie is the worst kind of hate speech. It is a completely audio-visual propaganda”.
The bench said, “There are varieties of hate speeches. This film has got certification and has been cleared by the board. It’s not like a person getting on the podium and starts giving uncontrolled speech. If you want to challenge the release of the movie, you should challenge the certification and through appropriate forum”.
“You should move the high court or any other appropriate forum but this cannot be here,” the bench further said.
Pasha “We do not have time for any other remedy and that’s how we are here before the highest court of the land. This movie will release on Friday,” he contended.
“We cannot tag it with the hate speech case. There is a difference between this and other matters you brought to our notice. Why don’t you move the concerned high court first? See, a board had certified it, through a process,” the bench told Pasha.
About The Kerala Story
Sudipto Sen is the director and Vipul Shah is the producer of “The Kerala Story.” The movie with Adah Sharma as the lead is based on 21 people who supposedly joined the Islamic State in 2016 but went missing. According to the movie’s trailer, 32,000 women from Kerala were supposedly forced to join ISIS after being converted.
