The Kerala High Court on Thursday stayed the release of the film The Kerala Story 2 - Goes Beyond, observing that it could disturb communal harmony, Live Law reported. The film was slated to be released on Friday.
Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas said that on a preliminary reading, the Central Board of Film Certification ignored guidelines for clearing films and asked it to re-examine the matter.
“The very content in the teaser itself, which is conceded to be part of the movie, has the prima facie potential to distort the public perception and disturb communal harmony,” Live Law quoted the bench as saying.
The film The Kerala Story 2 - Goes Beyond allegedly depicts women from various states being lured into relationships with Muslim men and coerced into religious conversion. The teaser released on February 17 includes a scene in which a Hindu woman is forced to consume beef.
The makers of the film had earlier argued before the court that the content shown in the teaser is not part of the movie.
On Thursday, in response to three petitions challenging the censor certificate granted to the film, the High Court said that the dissemination of content that could disturb law and order and undermine social harmony cannot be said to constitute freedom of speech, Live Law reported.
On Tuesday, the bench had said that it would watch the film before deciding on the petitions. Thomas had said that since the film claims to be based on true events, the concerns raised by the petitioners regarding misrepresentation and the possibility of inciting communal tensions appeared justified.
“Kerala is so secular,” the judge had said at the time. “It lives with total harmony, but have you considered this when something is portrayed as happening all over the state…There is a wrong indication and can even incite passion and that is when the censor board comes in picture.”
A day after the teaser was released, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had criticised the film on social media, alleging that it was “aimed at sowing hatred against Kerala and insulting our secular tradition”.
“It is the responsibility of each of us to prove that the secular foundation of Kerala will not be destroyed by false propaganda,” Vijayan had said on social media.
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