The Kerala Story: Supreme Court agrees to hear on May 12 plea against ban in West Bengal, de facto ban in Tamil Nadu

The Supreme Court agreed to hear on May 12, Friday the plea by the makers of the movie, The Kerala Story challenging the decision of the West Bengal government to ban screening of the movie in the State and also assailing a de facto ban by Tamil Nadu on the movie..The plea was mentioned on Wednesday before Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud by Senior Counsel Harish Salve on behalf of the petitioners. "We are losing money everyday and now another State says they will do the same," Salve said."Ok, list on Friday. Serve copies on the State of West Bengal," the CJI said.Ameet Naik, Managing Partner and Partner Madhu Gadodia of Naik Naik appeared for the petitioner..The West Bengal government had, on May 8, ordered an immediate ban on the screening of the controversial film in the State to avoid “any incident of hatred and violence”.The plea before the top court besides challenging the ban in West Bengal has also challenged the de facto ban imposed on the movie by the State of Tamil Nadu by issuing an “alert” anticipating protests in connection with the release of the film due to which theatres in the State withdrew the film.Pertinently, the plea has challenged Constitutionality of Section 6(1) of the West Bengal Cinemas (Regulation) Act, 1954 under which the West Bengal government issued the order banning the film.The Kerala Story is a Hindi film about a group of women from Kerala who join ISIS. The film was released on May 5.Even before its release, the film invited criticism from several quarters. In Kerala, the ruling CPI(M) and the opposition Congress party alleged that it is a propaganda movie promoting a fake narrative and an agenda of right wing organisations.The West Bengal order stated that the public exhibition of the film “is likely to cause breach of peace” and that an order under Section 6(1) of the West Bengal Cinemas (Regulation) Act, 1954 prohibiting the exhibition of the film in the State was required to be passed “to avoid any incident of hatred and violence in order to maintain peace and law and order situation in the State”. However, the petitioners have contended that Section 6(1) of the West Bengal Cinemas (Regulation) Act, 1954 "is unconstitutional, being ultra vires Part III of the Constitution of India, since it manifestly arbitrary and confers unguided and unfettered discretion on the executive to ban the exhibition of a film that has been duly certified for public release by the competent statutory authority under the Cinematograph Act, namely CBFC."The State cannot cite purported considerations of law and order in banning the exhibition of a film that has been duly certified for public exhibition in accordance with applicable law, it has been submitted."Any such ban, it has been repeatedly held, would constitute an unreasonable restriction on the fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India to engage in free speech. The stifling of the right to free speech of the Petitioner, that too on a mere apprehension of unsubstantiated considerations of law and order cannot withstand scrutiny under the Constitutional scheme," said the petition. As regards Tamil Nadu, it was submitted that theatres withdrew the film because of the evidently informal messaging from State authorities to film exhibitors that the government does not support the running of the film."The “shadow” nature of the de facto ban on the screening of the film has manifested itself in advisories/alerts issued by the state government to theatre owners foreshadowing protests and advising caution in screening the film. The State of Tamil Nadu cannot achieve indirectly that which it cannot achieve directly, viz., to stifle the right of the petitioners under Article 19(1)(a) to engage in free speech by exhibiting publicly a duly certified film," the petition said. The plea has, therefore, sought directions to the States to provide police protection to theatre owners and the audience for public exhibition of the film.Senior Advocate Harish Salve and advocate Ameet Naik of Naik Naik will be representing the petitioners.The plea was drawn by advocate Harshvardhan Jha and filed through advocate Yugandhara Pawar Jha..The Kerala High Court had, on May 5, refused to stay the release of the film. A bench of Justices N Nagaresh and Sophy Thomas, after watching the teaser and the trailer of the movie, determined that it did not contain anything against Islam or Muslims as a whole but was about terrorist organsiation Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).Appeal against the same is pending before the top court and will be heard on May 15, Monday.Notably, a slew of petitions were filed before various courts in the country against the movie.The Madras High Court on May 4 rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a ban on the movie on the ground that the Kerala High Court was already hearing a similar challenge and that the petitioner had approached the Court at "the last hour".The Supreme Court also refused to interfere with the release of film or to pass any other orders earlier.