Supreme Court to hear on May 12 The Kerala Story makers’ plea challenging ban in West Bengal

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a plea on Friday by the makers of The Kerala Story challenging the ban imposed on the screening of the film in West Bengal and the "de facto" ban in Tamil Nadu.

The plea was mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud senior counsel Harish Salva and the bench agreed to list the plea on Friday,

On May 8, the West Bengal government banned the film with immediate effect to avoid any incident of hatred and violence in the state. Although the Tamil Nadu government did not ban the film, multiplexes in the state refused to screen the film citing security concerns. The makers of The Kerala Story, which is based on the theme of religious conversions, approached the Supreme Court on Tuesday challenging the ban.

The film was released on May 5 following an order by the Kerala High Court stating that there was nothing objectionable against Islam in the film and the story was about the Islamic State terrorist group. Earlier, the Supreme Court refused to stay the release of the film and asked the petitioners to approach the Kerala High Court. The Supreme Court also declined to label a plea related to the film with hate speech pleas.