The Delhi High Court has issued summons to filmmaker Leena Manimekalai on a petition seeking to restrain her from depicting Hindu deity Kaali smoking a cigarette, reported Bar and Bench on Monday.
Judge Abhishek Kumar of the Tis Hazari Courts said that an injunction order to stop the depiction cannot be passed without hearing the defendants need to be heard before passing any orders against them.
The court listed the matter for hearing on August 6.
The court was hearing a petition filed by advocate Raj Gaurav. He has argued that in Manimekalai’s documentary, the Hindu deity has been depicted in a very “uncalled for manner”. Gaurav noted that the poster and promotional video of the documentary shows Kaali smoking a cigarette.
The petition contended that the depiction of Kaali not only hurts the religious sentiments of Hindus, but is also against the basic principles of morality and decency.
Besides smoking a cigarette, the poster of the documentary also shows a woman dressed as the Hindu deity raising the pride flag of the LGBTQ community.
The Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police have registered separate first information reports against the Madurai-born filmmaker after two complaints were filed accusing her of hurting the sentiments of the Hindu community.
On July, Twitter in India had pulled down Manimekalai’s tweet featuring the poster and said that it did so in response to a legal demand.
Amid the backlash, the filmmaker had said that she does not feel safe anywhere.
“It feels like the whole nation – that has now deteriorated from the largest democracy to the largest hate machine – wants to censor me,” she had added.
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