A Single Judge Bench of the Kerala High Court, comprising of Justice P. V. Kunhikrishna has, in the case of SR Josia v. Union of India, ordered that the Certification of the film "Aquarium" should be stayed for 2 weeks to look into the merits of the case. The petitioner claimed that the film has some dialogues that defame the religious sentiments of Catholic Christians.
"All further proceedings based on certification granted as per certificate No.DIL/3/1/2020-THI dated 4.3.2020 stays for a period of two weeks."
Submission of the Petitioner
The Senior Counsel on the behalf of Petitioner submitted that the contents in the script of the film are highly defamatory to the Roman Catholic Christians and there are defamatory statements about nuns. Therefore the release of the film on OTT should be stopped.
Reasoning and Decision of the Court
The Court took the note of the pandemic and the Bench held that:
“I don't want to make any observation about the contents of Ext.P2 script.”
The apprehension of the petitioners was that if the film by name "Aquarium" will be released on the online platform, it will hurt the sentiments of the petitioners and their community.
The Bench expressed that "this is a matter to be heard in detail. The jurisdiction of this Court is also to be decided in detail."
Therefore, the Court listed the matter on 20.5.2021 for the next hearing.
Case Details
Case: - W.P.(C.) No. 11278 of 2021
Petitioner: Sr Josia
Respondent: Union of India
Judge: Justice P.V.KUNHIKRISHNAN
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