The Kerala High Court on Thursday refused to entertain a petition seeking that the film The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond be renamed not to include the words “Kerala” or “Keralam”, reported Live Law.
A bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar VM also said that the petitioner was seeking to “cast an aspersion” on another bench that had lifted the stay on the film’s release, according to Bar and Bench. The film was released on February 27.
Earlier that day, a division bench of Justices SA Dharmadhikari and PV Balakrishnan set aside the order of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas, who had stayed the release of the film.
The film The Kerala Story 2 - Goes Beyond allegedly depicts Hindu women from several states being lured into relationships with Muslim men and coerced into converting to Islam. The teaser released on February 17 includes a scene in which a Hindu woman is forced to consume beef.
On February 26, Thomas said the film could disturb communal harmony. He had said that the Central Board of Film Certification had ignored guidelines for clearing films, and asked the authority to re-examine the matter.
The order was challenged by the film’s producer, Vipul Amrutlal Shah. He argued that halting the release of a film that had already been cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification was an extreme step that should be taken only in exceptional circumstances.
The fresh petition was filed by Chandramohanan KC, a retired social science teacher and social activist, along with advocate Mehnaz P Mohammed, reported Bar and Bench.
The petitioners told the court that the plea by the film’s producer was heard even before the single-judge’s interim stay order had been published on the court’s website.
“How can you cast aspersions against the judges?” the court told the petitioners. “You have to expunge this. If you are aggrieved, you can go to the Supreme Court. But sitting as a division bench, I cannot decide the observation by another coordinate bench.”
The petitioners had objected to the film’s title, alleging that it portrayed Kerala as the “epicentre of terrorism and radicalisation” and branded it as a “terror nursery” without any authentic data to support the claim, reported Bar and Bench.
They also argued that the Muslim community was depicted as “evil” in the film.
The bench allowed the petitioners to file a fresh petition without the paragraph that allegedly “cast aspersion” on the court.
Also read: ‘The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond’ review: A film that brings the war on Muslims home
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