Muzaffarnagar- The Burning Love: No ban on movie, UP govt tells Supreme Court

The government was responding to a petition which had alleged that ‘verbal instructions’ were issued by authorities not to release the movie in some districts.

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Muzaffarnagar, the Burning Love is a love story of a Hindu boy and a Muslim girl set in the backdrop of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)

THE UTTAR Pradesh government on Monday told the Supreme Court that there was no ban on the movie — Muzaffarnagar, the Burning Love — in any of the districts in the state. The government was responding to a petition in the court, which had alleged that “verbal instructions” were issued by authorities not to release the movie in Muzzaffarnagar, Meerut, Shamli, Saharanpur, Baghpat and Ghaziabad districts.

After hearing the submissions of advocate Sanjay Kumar Tyagi, representing the government, the bench comprising Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud, disposed of the petition filed by the producer of the movie, Morna Entertainment Private Limited.

Muzaffarnagar, the Burning Love is a love story of a Hindu boy and a Muslim girl set in the backdrop of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. The SC noted in its order the statement by the counsel that no order for banning the movie was passed by the authorities and the film was running in theatres even today.

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The bench disposed of the plea saying nothing remained to be adjudicated in the case, but if the producer and distributor wanted police help in screening the film, it would be provided to them. The film producer had approached the top court seeking directions to the authorities of these districts to allow the film’s screening without any hindrance and also sought directions to provide adequate security for it.

It had alleged that the authorities in these districts had “illegally and without any authorisation” warned and threatened the cinema theatres not to screen the movie, which was released on November 17, this year.
The plea had said that the movie was granted a ‘U/A’ certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification and the censor board had cleared it to be shown to the audience.

It had also alleged that the authorities had not issued any formal order to the theatres “but only on verbal instructions, the release of motion picture has been stalled thereby causing a great financial loss to the petitioner and also violating the fundamental right…”

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