The Supreme Court on Wednesday refrained from passing any direction on the plea to vacate the stay on the release of Udaipur Files: Kanhaiya Lal Tailor Murder and asked the filmmakers to wait for the decision of the Centre-appointed panel that will hear objections against the movie.
The bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said the panel would also review the Central Board of Film Certification’s (CBFC) decision to permit the pan-India screening of the film and posted the matter for further hearing to July 21.
The bench was hearing an appeal of the filmmakers against the Delhi High Court’s July 10 stay on the film’s release on a plea of Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani, invoking powers of the Centre under Section 6 of the Cinematograph Act, 1952, till the representation is decided by the central government.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Madani, defended the stay by the high court on the ground that the film had “a grave propensity to exacerbate communal tensions in the country”.
Advocate Gaurav Bhatia, representing the makers of the movie, argued that the film was rightly cleared by the CBFC and the high court ought not to have interfered with it.
The bench noted that the high court did not express any opinion on merits, especially with respect to the contents or nature of the movie, but relegated the petitioner (Madani) to avail the statutory remedy of revision petition under Section 6 of the Cinematograph Act.
The bench said the Centre had constituted a committee to examine the issue and the meeting was scheduled to be held at 2.30pm on Wednesday (July 16). “In such a situation, we deem it appropriate to defer the further hearing and await the outcome of the proceedings, which are now pending before the central government,” the court said.
The panel was ordered to give a hearing to the accused in the murder case. Udaipur-based tailor Kanhaiya Lal was murdered in June 2022. The assailants released a video claiming the murder was in reaction to the tailor allegedly sharing a social media post in support of former BJP member Nupur Sharma following her controversial comments on Prophet Mohammad.