The Supreme Court on July 14 said that it would hear “within a day or two” an appeal against the Delhi high court order staying the release of Udaipur Files: Kanhaiya Lal Tailor Murder, a film based on the beheading of the Udaipur tailor for allegedly blasphemous utterances about Prophet Mohammad. The producers, Jani Firefox Films, appealed to a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi of the apex court for urgent hearing of the Special Leave Petition challenging the high court’s July 10 order staying the release despite the CBFC certifying it with some cuts.
The high court was petitioned by Jamiat Ulama Hind’s Maulana Arshad Madani who alleged that the film was an attempt to vilify an entire community. The producers had argued that they had carried out the cuts suggested by the CBFC. The high court had disposed of Madani’s petition by permitting him to appeal against permission to release the film before the Union government. It had said, “Since we are relegating the petitioner to the remedy of revision petition under section 6 of the Cinematograph Act, we direct that till the application for interim relief, if made by the petitioner along with the revision petition under section 6, is decided by the Central government, the release of the film shall remain stayed.”