The Supreme Court on Friday directed the petitioners challenging the Centre’s revisional order, which approved the release of movie ‘Udaipur Files : Kanhaiya Lal Tailor Murder’ with six edits, to approach the Delhi High Court for relief.
The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi further directed the High Court to take up the matter on July 28 for a preliminary hearing.
The Apex Court passed the order on two petitions filed by Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind President Maulana Arshad Madani and Mohammed Javed, one of the accused in the Kanhaiya Lal murder case, seeking a stay on the film’s release. It further dealt with a special leave petition filed by the producers of the film and a plea filed by one Satish Kumar Aggarwal challenging the Delhi High Court’s stay order.
At the outset of the hearing, the Bench indicated its inclination to relegate the matters to the High Court.
Appearing for the Jamiat chief, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal argued that if the movie was allowed to be released, then the matter would become infructuous.
Representing the film’s producer, Jani Firefox Media Private Limited, Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia opposed the Court extending the stay.
He pointed out that the release could not be further stalled after the Centre’s revisional order. Bhatia said the courts have consistently taken a stand against stalling of film exhibitions, such as in the cases related to Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story.
The Counsel for another petitioner supporting the film said that the social fabric of the country was very strong and could not be affected by movies like Kashmir Files.
The Apex Court said that since it was relegating the matters to the High Court, there was no point in staying the release of the movie further.
Sibal requested that the High Court be asked to take up the matter on priority.
The Bench then asked the High Court to hear the matter on Monday. It clarified that it was not expressing anything on the merits of the matter.
Sibal submitted that the petitioner could not in any way get the revised version certified by the CBFC in the next two days and release it before Monday.
If they could get it released before Monday, then there would be no interim order. If not, the High Court would hear the matter on interim relief, he added.
Appearing for Javed, Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy apprised the Bench that they have already filed a writ petition before the High Court challenging the Centre’s revisional order.
On July 21, the Union government apprised the Bench that it had passed an order on the petitions seeking revision of CBFC certification granted to the movie. As per the Centre’s order, six changes to the contents of the film were suggested by an expert committee and the same were accepted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
The changes included: a more detailed disclaimer clarifying that the film was an artistic work and that it did not endorse violence or defamation of any community; changes to the credit cards; revision of an AI-generated scene depicting a Saudi-Arabia style turban; replacement of the name “Nutan Sharma” with a new name; removal of a dialogue of Nutan Sharma that she stated whatever was written in the religious texts; and removal of an exchange between characters Hafiz and Maqbool.
On July 10, the Delhi High Court stayed the release of the film till the Centre decided on pleas seeking a permanent ban on the film over its potential to “promote disharmony” in society.
The Bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Anish Dayal directed the Central government to exercise its revisional powers under Section 6 of the Cinematograph Act and examine the movie, slated to be released on July 11.