Why Should West Bengal Ban ‘The Kerala Story’? Supreme Court Issues Notice

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought to know why ‘The Kerala Story’ has been banned in West Bengal when it is running across the country without any problem.

“Why should West Bengal ban the movie? It is running in the rest of the country including in states having similar demographic composition and nothing has happened. This has nothing to do with the artistic value of the film,” a bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha observed, and issued notices to West Bengal as well as Tamil Nadu.

The Sudipto Sen-directed film has not been banned in Tamil Nadu, but theatres in multiplexes are not screening it over law and order concerns, which the makers claim was a ‘de facto ban’.

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who appeared for the Bengal government, cited intelligence inputs suggesting a possibility of law and order problem.

The apex court also sought to know what kind of security has been provided for theatres screening the film in Tamil Nadu. The state government was told it can’t look the other way when theatres are attacked.

The matter will next be heard on May 17.

‘The Kerala Story’, produced by Vipul Shah, narrates the story of a group of women who were allegedly forced to convert to Islam and recruited by the ISIS terror group.

As soon as the teaser of the film — which claimed that 32,000 women in Kerala were forced to convert to Islam – was released, there was controversy, with the Opposition saying it was a false claim.

Bengal became the first state to ban ‘The Kerala Story’ as announced by CM Mamata Banerjee on May 8, three days after the pan-India release of the movie.

Makers of the film challenged the ban in the Supreme Court, saying they were losing money every day.