The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday refused to stay the release of controversial godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s film, “MSG: Messenger of God”, paving the way for its expected release on February 13.
The film was earlier slated for release on January 16 but its release was deferred on account of protests by various groups, particularly the Akal Takht in Punjab and the Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana, as also the fact that the Central Board of Film Certification had, in view of its sensitive nature, referred it to a superior authority, the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal, for clearance.
Though the Tribunal had cleared the film for screening at the eleventh hour on January 15, the protests against the movie refused to die down both within the courts and on the streets.
In its petition, a Mohali-based trust, Kalghidhar Sewak Jatha, had in its petition before the High Court on January 27 claimed that the film’s screening would vitiate the law and order situation in Haryana and Punjab. A week prior to the last screening date, the Union Home Ministry had also issued a similar caution to the two States and Punjab Government had banned the release of the movie in the State.
The petition had also sought deletion of certain dialogues and objected to the Dera Sacha Sauda chief trying to project himself as a 'Messenger of God' when he was an accused in several criminal cases.
Advocate Naveen Saini, who appeared for the Trust, said the court had asked them to bring the Tribunal’s order and after considering it decided not to stay the release of the film. However, he said, the High Court has issued notices to the Central Government, Haryana Government, Union Territory of Chandigarh, Censor Board and the Appellate Tribunal as also the Dera chief for March 3 in the matter.
The spokesperson for the Dera, Dr. Aditya Insaan, had earlier told The Hindu that the film would be released in five languages -- Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and English – in between 3,000 and 4,000 theatres across India, North America, Australia, Italy and the Middle-East.
He had noted that the Tribunal had not found anything objectionable in the film and had cleared it after muting only half a sentence and one word, which too were not spoken by the Dera chief.
