The Kerala High Court has dismissed the petition filed by the father of the accused booked in the Venjaramoodu mass murder case seeking the restraint on the release of a Malayalam movie Kaalam Paranja Kadha. The High Court observed that a judicially skilled mind is not swayed by depiction in a movie and the Courts cannot interfere with the release of the movie under the supposition that the trial would be affected.

The petitioner had approached the High Court seeking a restraint on the release, exhibition and broadcast of a Malayalam movie by name 'Kaalam Paranja Kadha', until the conclusion of the trial in three murder cases.

The Single Bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas held, “Even if the movie has a storyline based on a crime of recent origin, as long as it is a creation of an art, courts cannot interfere and stall the release of the movie under the supposition that the trial will be affected. The trial before a court of law is presided by a judicially trained person.The judicially skilled mind is not swayed by depiction in a movie.”

“Merely because a movie is based on a theme, which has some similarity to an incident that occurred in the society, the same cannot be a reason to prevent such an art from being created or released for public viewing. A judicially trained mind is distinct from a hypersensitive mind and the former cannot be swayed by the contents of an artist's creation”, it added.

Advocate Sajju V. represented the Petitioner, while Central Government Counsel V.K. Hema represented the Respondent.

Factual Background

The Petitioner's son was allegedly involved in a murder case involving the death of multiple persons. The case was known as the 'Venjaramoodu mass murder case'. The said incident involved the murder of the grandmother, brother, uncle, aunt and girlfriend of the accused, apart from an attempt to murder his mother. The case is pending trial.

According to the petitioner (the father of the accused), he learned that a movie titled 'Kaalam Paranja Kadha' scheduled for release was based entirely on the murder case against his son. Petitioner alleged that the release of the movie based on the alleged crime, while the trial is still pending, would pave the way for a trial by media, influence the witnesses and public at large prejudicing the right to a fair trial of the accused, and thereby resulting in irreversible damage to the petitioner's reputation.

Reasoning

The Bench held that the petitioner’s allegation that the movie in question was based on a mass murder case in which his son was arraigned as an accused was based on an assumption. “Neither has the petitioner seen the movie nor has it been released. Of course, if the movie is released for public viewing, the challenge becomes a fait accompli. However, the producer and director of the film have denied the allegation that the movie is based on the Venjarmoodu mass murder case. In such circumstances, the release of the movie cannot be stalled on the basis of assumptions of the petitioner alone”, it stated.

The Bench found that the Censor Board, as well as the Revising Committee, had screened the movie and verified the same and did not find it to be objectionable or opposed to the concept of public viewing. It was noticed that the petitioner had raised allegations about the content of the movie being based on apprehensions and social media posts. “Since there is nothing concrete in the allegations raised by the petitioner and as the scheme of censoring a movie is prescribed by law, in the absence of any specific material to show that the allegations of the petitioner are founded on solid material, this Court cannot exercise its discretionary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India”, it held.

Finding no merit in the petition, the Bench dismissed the same.

Cause Title: Abdal Rahim H v. Union Of India (Neutral Citation: 2026:KER:31002)

Appearance

Petitioner: Advocates Sajju V., Ajmal A.

Respondent: Central Government Counsel V.K. Hema

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Kerala High CourtJustice Bechu Kurian Thomas

Tulip Kanth

Assistant Editor

Tulip Kanth is an Assistant Editor at Verdictum having over 5 years of experience in the field of legal journalism and editing. She extensively covers judgments of the Supreme Court, High Courts as well as Tribunals. She has previously worked with a legal publishing website where she oversaw the work of other editors and has also created updates on notifications of different Government Ministries. She holds an English Honours Degree from SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University and has completed her LLB course with specialisation in Corporate Law from Amity University.