Nepal HC Lifts Ban On Indian Movies, Mayor Vows To Defy It Anyway

The Patan High Court in Nepal's Bagmati province has issued an interim order in a writ petition challenging the ban on the screening of Indian films by the Kathmandu Metropolis. However, the city Mayor reacted sharply saying he would defy the court order if needed.

During the hearing over the writ petition filed by the Film Association of Nepal (FAN) against the decision to ban all Hindi movies in the wake of the "Adipurush" dialogue controversy, the High Court gave the interim order against the decision of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Mayor Balendra Shah.

A bench of Justice Dhirbahadur Chand gave the interim order. The defendants and the petitioner have also been called to the court next week as part of the proceedings. "Interim order has been issued. The court has directed not to block Hindi films and continue the screening," news agency ANI quoted FAN lawyer Jayalal Bhandari as saying over the phone.

The FAN, an umbrella organization of movie theatre owners of the country, had filed a writ petition at Patan High Court on Wednesday. Kathmandu Mayor Shah, KMC Police and Ministries of Home Communications and Information & Technology have been made the defendant in the case.

However, in a wild reaction to the court's decision, Mayor Shah said in a Facebook post that he "will not obey" any law or court "when it comes to independence and sovereignty of the country". He had announced the ban on June 18 over dialogue from the movie.

"If the film is allowed to be shown in other areas within the country and abroad, it will establish a misleading fact, so it is prohibited to show any Indian film in the Kathmandu metropolitan city until the objectionable parts are removed from the said film," he said on Facebook.

Soon after the announcement of the ban, T-Series, the production company of 'Adipurush', wrote a letter saying it was "never intentional or deliberate to cause any disharmony for anyone." "We request you to view the film in its artistic form and support the intention of reaching out to a larger audience to create interest in our history," said the letter signed by Radhika Das from the Super Cassette Industries Private Ltd, also known as T-Series.