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Synopsis

CJI DY Chandrachud today ordered that the Special Leave petition filed against the Kerala High Court's refusal to stay the release of the film "The Kerala Story" shall be taken up on Monday, i.e., May 15.

The SLP was mentioned today by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal who told Court that the High Court had rejected the interim reliefs prayed for.

Notably, on May 5, a division bench of the Kerala High Court comprising Justices N Nagaresh and Sophy Thomas had refused to stay the release of the film while noting that the film was about a terrorist organization, namely Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and had nothing to do with the religion of Islam or Muslims.

A day before that, the Supreme Court on last Thursday had refused to stay the release of the movie, while a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala were of the view that the success of the movie should be determined at the box office.  

“There is lot of labour which goes into movies. Actors, staff, directors put a lot of labour and it unfair to stay release. If its not good, people will not go,” the CJI had said as he expressed reluctance to stay the release of the film, even as the petitioner, who claimed the movie promoted hate speech, wanted to be effectively heard.

The film, produced by Sunshine Pictures Private Ltd and directed by Sudipto Sen, was released 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 caused outrage among some sections of the society.

Earlier, a bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna had also declined to entertain an interlocutory 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 as the top court noted the film has already been cleared by the Censor board.