Telangana high court dismissed a writ petition about Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s film The Kashmir Files on 28th March 2022 as the petition was withdrawn by the counsel of the petitioner. The writ petition filed by Mohammed Sami Ullah Qureshi alleged that the act of the makers of the film ‘The Kashmir Files’ putting certain objectionable scenes in the film is illegal, arbitrary. The Kashmir Files is a film based on the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus by Islamic terrorists in Kashmir in 1990 and their subsequent exodus. The film was released on 11th March 2022.
It was claimed in the petition that the scenes showing mass murders of Kashmiri Pandits by Muslims and the exodus of some Kashmiri Pandits during the Kashmir Insurgency are causing hurt to the religious sentiments of several Muslims around the world. The petitioner Mohammed Sami Ullah Qureshi had requested the court to issue a writ of mandamus declaring the action of the respondents in making, releasing, and telecasting these objectionable scenes in the film as illegal and arbitrary.
Mohammed Sami Ullah Qureshi claimed that the scenes showing mass murders of #KashmiriPandits by Muslims and their #exodus during the Kashmir insurgency are causing hurt to the religious sentiments of several Muslims around the world.@ISalilTiwari reportshttps://t.co/CAMaFHNLQg
— LawBeat (@LawBeatInd) March 28, 2022
The bench of Justice P. Madhavi Devi heard the petition in detail. The court noted that the petitioner’s counsel sought permission from the court to withdraw the writ petition to pursue an alternative remedy. However, it is notable that no specific alternative remedy was mentioned.
Taking this into consideration, the court ordered, “Accordingly, permission is accorded and this writ petition is dismissed as withdrawn with liberty to pursue an alternative remedy.”
This is not the first time that a petition was filed against the makers of The Kashmir Files alleging that the film hurts ‘religious sentiments’. The PIL filed against Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri’s movie The Kashmir Files by a resident from Uttar Pradesh named Intezar Hussain Sayed sought to stall the release of the film.
After the trailer of the movie was released, the petitioner had alleged that the trailer hurts the religious feelings of the Muslim community. However, Vivek Agnihotri had denied the allegations and said that his movie only shows the truth. The petitioner had also pleaded to immediately take down the trailer of this film till the hearing is done. This petition was dismissed by the Bombay High Court on Tuesday, 8th March 2022.
