The Kerala Story: Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge to Kerala High Court order that refused to stay release of film

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to list a challenge to the Kerala High Court order that refused to stay the release of the movie The Kerala Story or take down the trailer and other clips.

The plea was mentioned before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal.

The CJI agreed to list the matter on Monday, May 15.

The Kerala High Court on May 5 had refused to stay the release of the film. A Bench of Justices N Nagaresh and Sophy Thomas, after watching the teaser and the trailer of the movie, determined that it did not contain anything against Islam or Muslims as a whole but was about terrorist organsiation Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

"What is against Islam? There is no allegation against the religion. The allegation is against ISIS," the Bench had remarked.

"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," the Court added in its order.

The High Court had also orally remarked that there are umpteen movies in which Hindu sanyasis are depicted as smugglers or rapists, but the same have not led to any adverse consequences.

The Kerala Story is a Hindi film about a group of women from Kerala who join ISIS. The film was released on May 5.

Even before its release, the film invited criticism from several quarters. In Kerala, the ruling CPI(M) and the opposition Congress party alleged that it is a propaganda movie promoting a fake narrative and an agenda of right wing organisations.

The High Court was considering six petitions challenging the release of the movie, claiming that it was not based on facts and will lead to hatred against the Muslim community.

On May 2, the Court had said that petitions against movies like The Kerala Story will give such movies unnecessary publicity.

Notably, a slew of petitions were filed before various courts in the country against the movie.

The Madras High Court on May 4 rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a ban on the movie on the ground that the Kerala High Court was already hearing a similar challenge and that the petitioner had approached the Court at "the last hour".

The Supreme Court also refused to interfere with the release of film or to pass any orders for urgent listing of the case before the Kerala High Court.