Supreme Court halts release of 'Hamare Baarah' movie till decision on plea challenging its certification

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the release of movie 'Hamare Baarah' and asked the Bombay High Court to take an expeditious decision on a petition alleging that the film was derogatory to the Islamic faith and the married Muslim women. (Azhar Basha Tamboli vs Ravi S Gupta and ors).The bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta ordered that the till the disposal of the petition challenging the movie's certification, the screening of the movie shall remain suspended. The movie was slated to be released tomorrow."We request the High Court to dispose of the plea expeditiously," the Court said while halting the screening of the movie..The Court passed the order after hearing a petition challenging the Bombay High Court's refusal to stay the release of the movie. The counsel representing the petitioner, Advocate Fauzia Shakil, submitted that the High Court had directed an "interested party" - the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), to form a committee to screen the movie.However, the counsel representing the moviemaker said all the objectionable scenes were removed from the teasers. The Court rejected the claim. "We saw the teaser today morning and all scenes are there," it said.When the counsel representing the movie makers said he would have to incur losses on account of the stay order, the Court said,"If teaser is so offensive then what about the whole movie... Prima facie it seems you have failed since you yourself deleted the scenes from the teaser".In this backdrop, the Court asked the High Court to expeditiously decide the plea which essentially challenges the CBFC certificate of the movie..Before the High Court, it had been argued that the movie portrays married Muslim women to have no independent rights as individuals in society due to a verse in the Quran. The Quranic verse has been misread, the plea said.The High Court Court had on June restrained the filmmaker from releasing the movie till June 14. A day later it ordered the CBFC to form a panel of three individuals including at least one member from the Muslim community to view the movie.However, the Court later allowed release of the movie after the producers agreed to delete certain dialogues from it. The panel had sought more time to submit its comments but the High Court had objected to it.