Booking of tickets for 'The Kerala Story 2' going on despite stay: Kerala HC told

Kochi: The booking of tickets for 'The Kerala Story 2-Goes Beyond' was still on despite a stay on the release of the film, the single bench of Kerala High Court was told on Friday, even as the matter of the release of the movie was before a division bench.

The submission regarding the sale of tickets was made before Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas on behalf of the petitioners -- Sreedev Namboodiri and Freddy Francis -- on whose petitions the court on Thursday had stayed the release of the film for 15 days.

They told the court that the film producer had moved an appeal before a division bench against the stay on Thursday night, but no interim order was issued paving way for release of the film and only judgement was reserved.

However, on Friday morning, booking of tickets for the movie was possible and therefore, there was a possibilty the film might be screened in theatres during the day, despite the interim stay on its release, the lawyers said.

They said they will verify whether the film was being screened in theatres during the day and accordingly, will file a contempt plea.

Justice Thomas on Thursday stayed release of the film 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 -- Vipul Amrutlal Shah -- 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.