The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to immediately lift the Delhi High Court-ordered stay on Udaipur Files, the movie based on tailor Kanhaiya Lal Teli's murder in Udaipur. The Apex court has asked the Central govt panel to expedite decision.
The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymala Bagchi said the Central government can go ahead with examining the movie as directed by the High Court.The producers of the movie had approached the top Court after the Delhi High Court stayed the release of the movie on July 10.
"We will keep the matter pending. We can have benefit of view of Union of India before the HC. Suppose union says nothing wrong then we will see that. If they make some cuts then also we can peruse the same. If centre was not taking up the matter, then different . We are told committee has been formed and union is looking into it..we can wait for a day or two," the Court said.
It further ordered that the Committee constituted to decide the objections to the movie must take an immediate call on the issue.
"We expect that committee will decide the revision plea immediately without any loss of time. Post the matter for further consideration on July 21," the Court ordered.The top court noted that the High Court had not made any comments on the contents of the movie but only relegated the petitioner before it to avail a remedy before the Central government.
It added that the Central government is empowered to issue interim measures to suspend a movie exhibition. Further, the Court noted that the Committee is scheduled to examine the movie today."In such situation, we deem it appropriate to defer the hearing and await the outcome of proceedings pending before the Central government," the apex court said.It also permitted one of the accused in the Kanhaiya Lal murder case to be represented before the Committee.
The movie was slated to be released on July 11.Earlier, the CBFC had told the High Court that certain offending portions in the movie have been removed. Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia, representing the film producers, today argued that they had a valid clearance certificate from the CBFC.
"My movie was to be released after 12 hours. The movie was with 800 distributors. Now it is about piracy issues. If they decide by tomorrow to atleast exhibit the movie. This is a reasonable request," Bhatia said.Bhatia also argued for fundamental rights of the movie producers. At this, the top court said it cannot deal with the matter at this stage in view of the High Court order.
“Prima facie we are clear: Our judicial officers are not school-going children who will be swayed by movie or dialogues of movie. We are confident of their objectivity and the sense of attachment. Given regard to their training. But parties need to be heard,” Justice Kant remarked.
Meanwhile, the Court was told that the movie producer, director and the son of Teli had received threats in relation to the movie. The Court asked them to make a representation to the police.“If merit is found in the same .. necessary steps be taken to avoid any harm or injury to the concerned persons,” the Court ordered.
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