The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a PIL petition seeking a ban on the multilingual film, The Kerala Story, which it said depicts 32,000 Hindu and Christian women of Kerala converting to Islam and Makes baseless claims of joining ISIS. , an Islamic terrorist group.
The Summer Vacation Bench of Justices AD Jagadish Chandira and C. Saravanan dismissed the case at the admission stage itself after it emerged that the Supreme Court as well as the Kerala High Court had filed a similar petition seeking a ban on it. had considered. It refused to pass any adverse order against the film and the filmmakers.
fantasy version
Representing the filmmakers, senior advocate Satish Parasaran told the bench that the film was a fictionalized version of true events; Therefore, the members of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) could not be expected to go to Syria and Yemen and count the number of Indian women who have joined ISIS.
He said that the CBFC had discharged its duty under the Cinematograph Act, 1952 by insisting on certain cuts and issued only ‘A’ certification to the film after being convinced that it was completely unfit for viewing by adults. fit from Hence, post certification, the plea to ban the film was untenable, he argued.
The petition was filed by Chennai-based journalist BR Aravindakshan, who stated that the filmmakers had falsely claimed that 32,000 women had converted to Islam and were radicalised; Therefore, the film is likely to incite communal feelings and cause disturbance to public order.
‘Teaser without certification’
The petitioner’s counsel said the filmmakers released the teaser in November last year without obtaining CBFC certification and the trailer was viewed by millions of viewers on social media.
He also said that if cinema theaters were allowed to screen such false claims, the country would be shown in bad light.