The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking stay on the release of the film Kashmir Files. .A Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik dismissed the plea after they found no reasons to take a different view from their earlier order passed in a clutch of petitions pertaining to the recently released Gangubai Kathiawadi film. .The Bench had put to the petitioner counsel in the present case, as to whether he had perused their judgment of February 23, 2022. And even though, the counsel answered in affirmative, the Bench noted that the contentions raised by him lacked appreciation of what was held in the judgment.Finding no merits in the PIL, the Bench dismissed the same. .The PIL filed by Uttar Pradesh resident Intezar Hussain Sayed had sought a stay on the release of the film. The film is set to be released on March 11, Friday.The plea claimed that there were several scenes in the trailer of the film, which tend to hurt the religious feelings of the people of India, more particularly the Muslim community. Also, inflammatory scenes contained in the movie had the potential to cause communal violence in the country. He claimed that the whole movie showed one-sided view of the incident which could ignite and inflame members of the Hindu community and possibly trigger violence and immeasurable destruction across the country.The plea also claimed that with elections being held in various States, there is scope of misuse of incident by political parties which could escalate to full blown communal violence.Sayed sought for an order to pull down the trailer of the film from YouTube and other social media platforms forthwith; He also sought modification of the scenes that are discriminatory in nature..The producers of the film, Zee Studios, informed the Court that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had granted a certificate for public viewing. The Chief Executive Officer of CBFC has also permitted screening of the film. After deletions/ additions were sought by an individual after certification, they were made by the producers and an endorsement was also made to that effect. After briefly hearing the matter, the Court dismissed the petition and the accompanying interim applications. .Advocate Arvind Aswani appeared for Sayed.Senior Advocate Ravi Kadam with Advocates Hiren Kamod, Nidhish Mehrotra, Anushree Rauta instructed by Viveka Truman & Global Inc. appeared for Zee Studios. Senior Advocate Dr Birendra Saraf with Advocates Rashmin Khandekar, Hemangi Abhyankar, Vikramaditya Chavan instructed by Viveka Truman & Global Inc., appeared for Vivek Agnihotri. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh with Advocates Advait Sethna, Anusha Amin, DP Singh, Amogh Singh, Pranav Thackur appeared for the CBFC..[Read order]
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking stay on the release of the film Kashmir Files. .A Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik dismissed the plea after they found no reasons to take a different view from their earlier order passed in a clutch of petitions pertaining to the recently released Gangubai Kathiawadi film. .The Bench had put to the petitioner counsel in the present case, as to whether he had perused their judgment of February 23, 2022. And even though, the counsel answered in affirmative, the Bench noted that the contentions raised by him lacked appreciation of what was held in the judgment.Finding no merits in the PIL, the Bench dismissed the same. .The PIL filed by Uttar Pradesh resident Intezar Hussain Sayed had sought a stay on the release of the film. The film is set to be released on March 11, Friday.The plea claimed that there were several scenes in the trailer of the film, which tend to hurt the religious feelings of the people of India, more particularly the Muslim community. Also, inflammatory scenes contained in the movie had the potential to cause communal violence in the country. He claimed that the whole movie showed one-sided view of the incident which could ignite and inflame members of the Hindu community and possibly trigger violence and immeasurable destruction across the country.The plea also claimed that with elections being held in various States, there is scope of misuse of incident by political parties which could escalate to full blown communal violence.Sayed sought for an order to pull down the trailer of the film from YouTube and other social media platforms forthwith; He also sought modification of the scenes that are discriminatory in nature..The producers of the film, Zee Studios, informed the Court that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had granted a certificate for public viewing. The Chief Executive Officer of CBFC has also permitted screening of the film. After deletions/ additions were sought by an individual after certification, they were made by the producers and an endorsement was also made to that effect. After briefly hearing the matter, the Court dismissed the petition and the accompanying interim applications. .Advocate Arvind Aswani appeared for Sayed.Senior Advocate Ravi Kadam with Advocates Hiren Kamod, Nidhish Mehrotra, Anushree Rauta instructed by Viveka Truman & Global Inc. appeared for Zee Studios. Senior Advocate Dr Birendra Saraf with Advocates Rashmin Khandekar, Hemangi Abhyankar, Vikramaditya Chavan instructed by Viveka Truman & Global Inc., appeared for Vivek Agnihotri. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh with Advocates Advait Sethna, Anusha Amin, DP Singh, Amogh Singh, Pranav Thackur appeared for the CBFC..[Read order]
