The Supreme Court Of India (SCI) Thursday Jan 18,2018 cleared the decks for the all-India release of
controversial movie ’Padmaavat’ on January 25 ,2018 and stayed notifications
and orders issued by Rajasthan and Gujarat prohibiting exhibition of the
film in their states. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra also
restrained any other state from issuing such notifications and orders
prohibiting exhibition of the movie.
The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud
observed that the states are obliged to maintain law and order. “We
direct that there shall be a stay of operation on the notification and
orders issued and we also restrain other states from issuing such
notifications or orders in this matter,” the bench said in its interim
order.
Senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, representing Viacom 18
and other producers of the movie, told the bench that states have no
power to issue such notifications banning exhibition of a film when the
Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has given a certificate of
release.
The bench has posted the matter for further hearing in March 2018
The producers had approached the SCI challenging the notification
and orders issued by four states - Gujarat Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya
Pradesh - prohibiting exhibition of the film. During the hearing today,
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was representing
Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana, informed the bench that notification and
order has been issued by states of Gujarat and Rajasthan only.
Governments of Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan had
declared that they will not allow screening of the movie, which stars
Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in lead roles. The
producers submitted that the movie has undergone changes including in
its title as suggested by the CBFC.
Asserting that the film has been cleared by the CBFC, the plea has said
that the states cannot impose a blanket ban on a film and its screening
can be suspended in a particular area or areas on account of law and
order problem, not across the states. Politicians of all hues, including
some chief ministers, recently made public statements on the film, with
many of them being against it.
The film is based on the saga of the historic battle of 13th century
between Maharaja Ratan Singh and his army of Mewar and Sultan Alauddin
Khilji of Delhi. The set of the movie was vandalised twice - in Jaipur
and Kolhapur, while its director Sanjay Leela Bhansali was roughed up by
members of the Karni Sena last year.
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