Kerala High Court dismisses PIL which alleged that movie 'Kurup' violated right to privacy of Sukumara Kurup

The Kerala High Court recently dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed against Dulquer Salmaan starrer movie "Kurup" which was released in 2021, which is said to be based on the life of a proclaimed offender and "India's longest wanted fugitive", Sukumara Kurup [Sebin Thomas v Union of India & Ors.]..The plea filed by advocate Sebin Thomas sought the protection of the privacy of Sukumara Kurup under Article 21 of the Constitution and a court direction to stay the release of the movie or to remove the movie from theatres if already released.A division bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly dismissed the plea on the ground that the movie had already been screened and the petitioner being a third party, failed to make out a case. The High Court observed that even though the movie drew inspiration from the real life story of the proclaimed offender, it did not mean that the story was the complete life story of Kurup thereby violating his privacy rights.“Only because the story gets inspiration from the life story of a proclaimed offender. That does not mean that the story is completely the life story of that person and the publication of that story would affect the privacy right of that particular person,” the Court observed..It further noted that neither the proclaimed offender nor his family members came forward to claim that the movie depicts the story of the proclaimed offender and infringed his right to privacy.The High Court accepted the contention raised by the Standing Counsel of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) that when a CBFC certificate is issued, there is a prima facie presumption that the concerned officials have looked into all aspects regarding the movie before granting Certification.The High Court also found merit in the contention of M Star Entertainment that the crime committed by the proclaimed offender had already been discussed in the judgment in Ponnappan v. State which is in public domain and can be accessed by anyone..Kurup is a Malayalam-language biographical crime thriller film written by KS Aravind, Jithin K Jose and Daniell Sayooj Nair and directed by Srinath Rajendran.It stars Dulquer Salmaan in the title role along with Indrajith Sukumaran, Sobhita Dhulipala, Sunny Wayne, Bharath Srinivasan, Shine Tom Chacko, Surabhi Lakshmi, and Vijayaraghavan in supporting roles.The movie is about the life of Sukumara Kurup, a proclaimed offender since 1989.Kurup, a conman is alleged to have murdered a man named Chacko in 1984, and used the corpse to subsequently fake his own death to claim insurance money.Section 82 of the Criminal Procedure Code incorporates the concept of ‘proclaimed offender’. Through a proclaimed offender proceeding, the court declares an individual as a wrongdoer and guides the concerned police authorities to capture him under the watchful eyes of the court.The respondents were represented by Assistant Solicitor General Manu S, Senior Advocates G Shrikumar and J Jaju Babu and advocates P Fazil, Saju Thaliath, Anesh Paul and Jithin Paul Varghese..Read more about the plea here.[Read Judgment]