The movie distorts Qur’anic verses to propagate a narrative blaming Muslims for population growth, says civil rights group Association for Protection of Civil Rights
Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – Describing the teaser of the movie as “offensive” and “objectionable”, the Supreme Court on Thursday suspended the screening of the controversial film ‘Hamare Baarah’ till the Bombay High Court decides on the petition challenging its release.
Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta passed the order on a plea challenging the high court’s order permitting the release of the film. On 6 June, the Bombay High Court allowed the release of the movie after initially halting its screening.
“Until disposal of the petition before the high court, screening of the movie in question shall remain suspended”, the division bench of the Supreme Court ordered.
During the hearing, the judges said that they watched the teaser of the movie and found it to be offensive. “Today morning we have seen the teaser. It is as such with all those objectionable materials. The teaser is available on YouTube,” Justice Mehta said.
Speaking to Clarion India, Supreme Court advocate Fauzia Shakil, who was representing the petitioner in the apex court, said that the court has put a stay on the release of the order.
“The court said that the teaser of the movie is very offensive. One can guess the nature of the film after watching the teaser. The court also said that the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) is not doing its work in a good manner,” said Fauzia.
The petition was filed by Azhar Pasha Tamboli.
New Delhi-based civil rights group Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) has said that it helped to secure relief from the Supreme Court for the stay of the release of the controversial movie directed by Ravi S Gupta.
“The movie has been embroiled in controversies for its bold narrative and portrayal of the issue of the population rise of Muslims. It distorts Qur’anic verses to propagate a narrative blaming Muslims for population growth,” said the APCR in a statement.
In its petition challenging the Bombay High Court order, the petitioner argued that the theme, explicit visuals and dialogues in the film are not just hurtful, harmful and defamatory to the sentiments of the entire Muslim community but are of such nature that it would in all likelihood incite hatred against the Muslims in society, will breach harmony, public order etc. as there has been a willful, indecent and conscious distortion of the religious text.
“The said film is a wanton vilification of the Islamic faith and the practices of married couples as per the Holy Qur’an as is violative of Article 19(2) of the Constitution,” reads the petition.
According to the petition, the film depicts men of a particular religion behaving in an uncivilised manner and their wives having no rights, privacy and are shown as slaves of their husbands and are required to endure torture without any protest.
“The trailer of the said film itself depicts the entire particular religion in bad light, lowers the public standing of the members of the said religion, promotes enmity and incites hatred towards them and has hurt the religious sentiments of not just the petitioner but of the members of the said region,” reads the petition.
The high court has restrained the filmmaker from releasing the movie till June 14. Later, it ordered the CBFC to form a panel of three individuals including at least one member from the Muslim community to view the movie.
