The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court today refused to stay the release of the Tamil movie "Komban", which allegedly portrays Dalits in bad light, saying it was not proper to restrain a movie without knowing its content.
Dalit-based Puthiya Tamizhagam had sought a direction restraining the Censor Board from granting certification to the film, starring Karthik, and a stay on its release contending that it could cause communal problem in southern districts of Tamil Nadu as some of the dialogues were allegedly against Dalits.
The movie was to hit the screens this week.
Passing orders on a petition filed by PT founder leader K Krishnaswamy who was against issuing censor certification for the movie, a bench comprising, Justices S Tamilvanan and V S Ravi, directed the registry to post the case for hearing on April 6.
The petitioner or any other person could apprise the court on that date for appropriate remedy provided the movie was found to be a problem in maintaining communal harmony, the Judges said.
The petitioner had submitted that the film had also portrayed a Dalit as a villain. He said that according to his sources in the film industry, the film was not fit for release.
He had also claimed even some members of the Censor Board had objected to the content of the film and it was sent to the Central Board of Film Certification in Mumbai whose chairman sent it back to Chennai for review.
The court had on March 30 suggested that a ten-member team, including two retired judges, the petitioner and the film's producer, could view the film in a pre-view threatre and submit a report.
But they could not see the film due to some "untoward incident" yesterday.
