Kerala Story 2 ticket booking continues despite stay — state govt tells High Court
The HC stayed the release of Kerala Story 2 for 15 days, saying that prima facie there was a manifest non-application of mind to the requirement of law by the censor board, CBFC.
The booking of tickets for The Kerala Story 2-Goes Beyond was continuing despite a stay on the release of the movie, the state government told the Kerala High Court on Friday.
The matter of the release of the controversial movie is before a division bench of the Kerala High Court.
According to a PTI report, petitioners Sreedev Namboodiri and Freddy Francis, on whose petition the court had stayed the release of the movie for 15 days, submitted that the tickets for Kerala Story 2 were selling, despite the stay.
They told the court that the movie producer, Vipul Amrutlal Shah, had moved an appeal before a division bench against the stay on Thursday night, but no interim order was issued paving the way for the release of the film, and only a judgment was reserved.
However, their lawyers argued that on Friday morning, booking of tickets for the movie was possible, and therefore, there was a possibility the movie might be screened in theatres during the day, despite the interim stay on its release.
They said they will verify whether the film was being screened in theatres during the day and, accordingly, will file a contempt plea.
According to the petition, the grievance arises from the teaser and trailer of the film, which portray narratives involving women from multiple states, yet brand the content as 'The Kerala Story', thereby associating alleged incidents of terrorism, forced conversion and demographic conspiracy exclusively to the state of Kerala.
"Such a portrayal has the potential to stigmatise an entire regional population, disturb public order, and incite communal and regional disharmony", the petition has said.
Stay on Kerala Story 2
On Thursday, Justice Thomas stayed the release of the movie for 15 days, saying that prima facie there was a manifest non-application of mind to the requirement of law by the censor board, CBFC.
The judge also said that "the possibility of communal disharmony or denigration of a community also being prima facie involved in the movie", its release without scrutiny by the higher authorities would be legally improper.
The court had further said that the content of the film's teaser has "a prima facie potential to distort public perception and disturb communal harmony".
Later in the night, the producer moved an appeal before a division bench of justices Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and P V Balakrishnan, which reserved order in the matter after hearing extensive arguments from all stakeholders.
However, the bench did not issue any interim direction staying the single judge's decision.
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