Supreme Court to hear plea for 'Udaipur Files' release 'in a day or two'

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Monday told producers of the film ' Udaipur Files : Kanhaiya Lal Tailor Murder ', screening of which has been stayed by Delhi high court , that it will hear its plea for release of the movie in the theatres "within a day or two".

Senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia appealed to a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi for urgent hearing on the special leave petition by Meerut-based producer ' Jani Firefox Media ' challenging the high court's July 10 order stalling release of the film despite the censor board clearing its screening with certain cuts.

Bhatia said the high court order came on a petition by Maulana Arshad Madani , who claimed the film was an attempt to vilify an entire community, even though the storyline of the movie is based on a true incident of beheading of Kanhaiyalal by two Muslim men in June 2022 for sharing a post on Prophet Mohammad, and that the producers had carried out cuts suggested by CBFC.

The high court had disposed of Madani's petition by permitting him to appeal against permission to release the film before Union government. It had said, "Since we are relegating the petitioner to remedy of revision under Section 6 of Cinematograph Act , we direct that till the application for interim relief, if made by the petitioner along with the revision petition under Section 6, is decided by central govt, release of the film shall remain stayed."

The film producer through advocate Pulkit Agarwal cited several SC judgements which had laid down the principle that a film cleared by censor board cannot be stalled from being screened in theatres unless there is an explicit violation which squarely fell within 'reasonable restrictions' on right to free speech specified under Article 19(2) of the Constitution.