Kerala High Court refuses to entertain fresh plea on The Kerala Story 2-Goes Beyond

The Kerala High Court on Thursday (March 5, 2026) refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) that was filed earlier this week seeking removal of ‘Kerala’ from the title of the Hindi film The Kerala Story 2-Goes Beyond.

A Bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar V.M. orally observed that it would be improper for the court to entertain the plea, since a writ petition and an appeal regarding the matter were already pending before the court. Moreover, a Division Bench had passed an order permitting the movie’s release, it said, adding that the court could not decide on an order already passed by a coordinate Bench.

Stating that one could criticise a judgment, the court warned the petitioner against attempting to cast aspersions on the court as an institution. Following this, the petitioners offered an unconditional apology for including the submissions in the PIL.

The petitioners, a retired social science teacher and a woman lawyer, had also mentioned in their plea that the filmmakers had challenged before a Division Bench of the court a recent Single Bench order that had issued an interim stay on the film’s release, allegedly before the interim stay order was uploaded. In the PIL filed on Tuesday, they alleged that apart from showing Kerala in a bad light by portraying it as a hub of forced conversions, the film could create hatred towards members of the Muslim community in the State.

The petitioners further sought a direction to the Centre and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to permit screening of the film with a disclaimer that it was based on a purely fictional theme. They also sought a direction to the Centre and the CBFC to frame guidelines to ensure that titles and tag lines of films did not denigrate any State, region, caste or religion.