Supreme Court stays June 14 release of Annu Kapoor’s movie ‘Hamare Baarah’

New Delhi, June 13

Taking note of allegations that it’s derogatory to the Islamic faith and married Muslim women, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the June 14 release of Annu Kapoor’s movie ‘Hamare Baarah’.

“We have seen the movie trailer in the morning and all the offensive dialogues continue in the trailer… If the teaser is so offensive, then what about the whole movie… Prima facie, it seems you have failed since you yourself deleted the scenes from the teaser,” a Vacation Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta said, staying the release of the film.

The order came after advocate Fauzia Shakil submitted on behalf of petitioner Azhar Basha Tamboli that the Bombay High Court vacated the stay on the release of the film by an “unreasoned order”.

“The High Court could not have directed the CBFC to constitute a committee because the CBFC was a party, interested in the litigation,” Shakil submitted.

The filmmakers’ counsel said they would have to incur losses due to the stay order.

Asking the Bombay High Court to expeditiously decide the plea, the top court stayed the screening of the film till the disposal of the petition by the Bombay High Court.

It left open all objections, including the direction to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to select the committee to raise before the high court.