No stay on screening of 'The Kerala Story' says HC

The Kerala High Court on Friday refused to stay the release of the film 'The Kerala Story', saying "there is no allegation against the Islam religion."

Division Bench comprising Justice N Nagaresh and Justice Mohammed Nias CP had considered a batch of petitions seeking to cancel the censor certificate of the film. After watching the teaser and the trailer of the controversial flick, it said that the movie does not contain anything against Islam or Muslims, according to a report in Bar and Bench website.

"What is against Islam? There is no allegation against the religion. The allegation is against ISIS," the bench said. "Going through the trailers of the movie, we find it does not contain anything offensive to any particular community as a whole. None of the petitioners have watched movie," it stated in the order.

The High Court further said that there are many movies in which the monks from Hindus and Christians have been projected in a bad light. "So many movies have already come out about such organizations. There have been references against Hindu monks and Christian priests in many films before. Did you see all this in the way of fiction? What is so special now? How does this movie create sectarianism and conflict in the society?" the court observed.

However, the petitioners said that such movies would inject poison into young minds while stating that no agencies have found the existence of 'Love Jihad' in Kerala.

The CPI(M) and the Congress in Kerala have opposed the release accusing the movie of falsely claiming that 32,000 women got converted and radicalised and were deployed in terror missions in India and the world.

Sudipto Sen-directed flick is produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. It has Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani and Siddhi Idnani in the cast.

Meanwhile, the movie has hit the screens across the country. However, some theatres in Kerala have cancelled the shows.

The screening of the controversial flick was cancelled at PVR Cinemas in Oberoi Mall and at the Lulu Mall in Kochi, according to a report in Times Now.

With inputs from agencies.