The Delhi high court on July 10 stayed the release of Udaipur Files: Kanhaiya Lal Tailor Murder. The film was to hit the screens today (July 11). Purportedly based on tailor Kanhaiya Lal’s 2022 murder in Udaipur, the film came in the eye of a controversy when Islamic cleric body Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind and others petitioned the high court to seek a review of its CBFC certificate.
The petitioners’ counsel, Kapil Sibal, described the film as “the worst form of hate speech” against a community and an “imminent threat to public order and harmony”.
Udaipur-based tailor Kanhaiya Lal was murdered in June 2022 for allegedly sharing a social media post in support of former BJP leader Nupur Sharma after her controversial comments on Prophet Mohammed. NIA arrested alleged assassins Mohammad Riyaz and Mohammad Ghouse.
A division bench of Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Anish Dayal directed the petitioners to approach the Centre within two days with their grievance and seek a review of the censor certificate. The bench said that the film would not be released until the Centre took a call on the revision plea.
The two judges pointed out that it is well within the court’s right to exercise extraordinary jurisdiction even in a case where a petitioner has not exhausted its alternative statutory remedies. “But having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case…, especially the processes to be gone into at the time of grant of certification, we are of the opinion that the petitioner ought to approach the Central government by invoking section 6 of the (Cinematograph) Act, which deals with revisional powers vested with the Central government,” the bench said.
During the hearing, Kapil Sibal said, he had watched the film in a private screening, as directed by the court. He cited some scenes and dialogues from the film to put forth his point that the film was “not art by cinematic vandalism” to vilify a community. Among the scenes he highlighted was one showing the arrest of Muslim students.
In his counter-arguments, Chetan Sharma, counsel for the Centre, justified the CBFC’s nod and contended that it was a film based on a crime, not any community. “The film cautions people. It is a crime-specific film. We should all live together — that’s the theme,” Sharma explained.