Let it be released: SC on ‘Udaipur Files’

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to take up a petition seeking to stay the July 11 release of “Udaipur Files”, a film based on tailor Kanhaiya Lal’s murder in Udaipur in 2022.

“Let it be released,” a Bench led by Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Joymalya Bagchi told advocate Pyoli after she mentioned a petition filed by Mohammed Javed, one of the accused in the murder case, seeking a stay on release of the film.

“It is releasing this Friday. The trailer was released on July 4. They are showing only the prosecution side,” she told the Bench. Contending that the film’s release would violate his right to fair trial, she requested the Bench to grant an urgent listing of the petition.

However, Justice Dhulia asked the counsel to mention the matter before the Bench concerned on the reopening of the court on July 14.

Petitioner Mohammed Javed has sought a stay on the film till the trial before an NIA court in Jaipur got over. Describing the film as communally provocative, he submitted that releasing it at this juncture portraying the accused as guilty has the potential to seriously prejudice the trial.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court directed the producer of the film to arrange its screening for those seeking a ban on it after the CBFC and the film’s producer claimed that objectionable portions have been removed.

“You view what cuts are made. Then come tomorrow,” a Division Bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Anish Dayal told senior counsel Kapil Sibal who represented Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind’s Maulana Arshad Madani.

Madani has sought a stay on the film’s release, alleging that it might lead to communal discord and threaten social harmony as its trailer was replete with dialogues and instances that had led to communal disharmony in 2022.

India