Muslim body moves Supreme Court against 'The Kerala Story'

The fresh plea by Muslim body claimed the film demeans the entire community and is likely to cause hatred and enmity between different sections of society

Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind has approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre and others not to allow the screening or release of the movie entitled The Kerala Story at theatres, OTT (Over The Top) platforms and other such avenues.

This comes on a day when a bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna declined to entertain an interlocutary application argued by senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate M Nizamuddin Pasha in a pending PIL by Qurban Ali contending the movie was a part of hate speech.

The court noted the film has already been cleared by the Censor board.

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The fresh plea by Muslim body, however, claimed the movie is demeaning the entire Muslim community and is likely to cause hatred and enmity between different sections of society in India.

The film, produced by Sunshine Pictures Private Ltd and directed by Sudipto Sen, is slated for release on Friday, May 05, 2023 in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu across the country.

The movie made on girls who fell victims of 'Love Jihad' and landed in Syria and Afghanistan has spurred strong reactions with demands being made to ban it.

The Muslim organisation contended the movie will result in endangering the life and livelihood of the petitioners and the entire Muslim community in our country.

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"This is a direct infringement under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India. The movie demeans the entire Muslim community, particularly Muslim youth and it will result in endangering the life and livelihood of the entire Muslim community in our country and this is a direct infringement under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution," the plea claimed.

Advocate Ejaz Maqbool filed the plea which alternatively sought a direction to the Central Board of Film Certification to further identify incendiary scenes and dialogues for removal or show a disclaimer stating that it is a work of fiction and the characters in the movie bear no resemblance to any person living or dead.

The petitioner claimed the trailer of the movie released on April 26 showed Hindu and Christian girls in Kerala were being converted to Islam by extremist clerics and trafficked to Afghanistan to ISIS while outwardly friendly Muslim youths abet it by luring them.

The Central Board of Film Certification gave the film an ‘A’ certificate and deleted 10 scenes.

"It is falsely stated that 32,000 girls have left Kerala for West Asia to join ISIS because the Union Home Ministry, police sources and experts agree that the number of Indians who left to join ISIS is between 100 and 200," it pointed out.