Underscoring that the title of the movie "Yadav Ji Ki Love Story" nowhere has any word that portrays the Yadav community in a negative light, the Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the petition seeking a stay on the film's release.
The court order comes two days before the film's nationwide release on Friday.
"We fail to understand as to how the title of a film can reflect the community in bad light. The title of the film nowhere has any adjective or any word that portrays the Yadav community in bad light. The apprehensions are wholly unfounded," the court said.
The petition alleged that the movie's title and portrayal risk reinforcing caste-based stereotypes and disturbing social harmony.
According to the plea, the film's use of the caste-identifying expression "Yadav Ji" in its title and promotional material inevitably associates an entire community with the narrative and characterisation of a commercial cinematic work.
The court cited the case of movie "Bandit Queen", based on Phoolan Devi, in 1994.
"In "Bandit Queen", they said the Gujjar community is shown in bad light, this court said no," the court told the filmmakers.
The petitioner's lawyer questioned the way the woman in the movie has been depicted.
"The issue is how the girl's character has been depicted in the movie. A lady cannot be publicised this way. We are not against any community marrying any community," the petitioner's lawyer said.
"It is fiction," the court pointed out.
"They say it is based on a real story," the petitioner argued.
"If you want we will say the name of this movie does not show the movie in any bad light. We have perused the material on record," the court said further.
The court made a distinction between the stay it ordered on Netflix crime thriller 'Ghooskhor Pandat' and 'Yadav Ji Ki Love Story'.
"We would like to distinguish our order in 'Ghooskhor Pandat'. The expression 'ghooskhor' in English means corrupt. Therefore a negative meaning was being attached to the community. In the instant case no such negativity is attached to the Yadav community. Neither of the reasonable restrictions under 19(2) are attracted. The name in no way portrays the Yadav community in bad light or any negative way. The writ petition is accordingly dismissed," the court said.
On February 19, the Supreme disposed of a plea against the 'Ghooskhor Pandat' after filmmaker Neeraj Pandey informed it that he has withdrawn the title of the movie along with all publicity material.
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan disposed of the plea seeking a stay on the release of the film after taking Pandey's affidavit on record and said it is expected that there shall be a quietus to this controversy in all respects.
