A day before the schedule date of release, the Supreme Court of India today halted the release of the movie Hamare Baarah. The court ordered on 13 June that the movie will not be allowed to release until a case pending before the Bombay High Court on its release is disposed. The movie scheduled to release on 14 June is being opposed by Muslim groups alleging that it is derogatory towards their religion.
A vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta passed the order responding to a plea that challenged the Bombay HC’s decision to permit the release of the movie. The bench ruled, “Until disposal of the petition before the High Court, screening of the movie in question shall remain suspended”.
Notably, the bench also commented that the movie’s teaser contains objectionable content. Justice Mehta said, “Today morning we have seen the teaser. It is as such with all those objectionable materials. The teaser is available on YouTube.”
Then Justice Nath added, “The teaser is so offensive that the High Court granted an interim order.”
The original plea against the movie was filed with Bombay HC by petitioner Azhar Basha Tamboli. The movie was originally scheduled to release on 7 June. The plea was filed against Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), seeking to revoke the certification granted to the film “Hamare Baarah” and halting its release.
The petitioner alleged that the film was in contravention of the provisions of the Cinematograph Act, 1952, and the rules and guidelines associated with it. He claimed that the trailer was derogatory to the Islamic faith and married Muslim women in India, and the film’s release would violate Articles 19(2) and Article 25 of the Constitution.
However, the CBFC defended its decision to grant the certificate to the movie saying all necessary procedures were followed. The Board said that the objectionable scenes and dialogues were deleted and the trailers of the film released on YouTube and BookMyShow were not certified trailers.
The High Court then postponed the release date from 7 June to 14 June and appointed a review committee to watch the movie. However, when the 3-member committee failed to give a verdict and sought more time, the Bombay High Court on 7 June allowed the release of the movie after the makers agreed to delete some controversial dialogues.
Allowing the release, the high court said, “One individual in a country of 130 crore citizens can not bring such a petition which can stall a film release without granting any guarantee whatsoever for costs incurred by filmmakers in such a case.”
During the hearing at the Supreme Court, the advocate of the respondents objected to the plea saying that it was based on the trailer which has already been deleted from the movie. He also said that the makers have the right to release the movie as it has the CBFC certificate.
But the Supreme Court bench still prevented the release of the movie, saying that the case pending with the High Court should be resolved first. The bench declined the request of the filmmakers to direct the High Court to dispose of the case within 1 week.