The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind on May 2 moved the Supreme Court to stop the release of the movie The Kerala Story on Friday and for immediate removal of its online trailer, saying the film demonises the entire Muslim community, particularly Muslim youth, with a “malicious propaganda” that 32,000 girls in Kerala were lured through ‘love jihad’ and trafficked to West Asia to join the ISIS.
Earlier in the day, advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for journalist, Qurban Ali, made an urgent mentioning before a Bench led by Justice K.M. Joseph with regard to the film. Mr. Pasha said the movie amounted to hate speech and sought an intervention in an already existing case before Justice Joseph’s Bench concerning hate speech. However, the Bench said the issue concerned a film and advised Mr. Pasha to file a separate petition either in the Supreme Court or the Kerala High Court. Mr. Pasha filed a separate petition in the top court later in the day against the release of the film.
The Jamiat petition, filed through advocate Ejaz Maqbool, said the organisation had directly approached the Supreme Court as the movie was scheduled for release in four languages — Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu — and would have an adverse impact across the country.
