November 24, 2017
The Centre on Friday suffered a setback when a
division bench of the Kerala High Court failed to stay the single bench order
earlier this week that directed the screening of the certified copy of Malayalam
film "S Durga" at the 48th IFFI.
The Centre had on Thursday filed an
appeal before the division bench against the single bench's verdict that asked
for the film to be screened at the ongoing International Film Festival of India
(IFFI) in Goa.
Even while opposing the single bench order, the Centre's
counsel pointed out that including the film at this time would create a problem
for the schedule, but the division bench failed to stay the single bench verdict
and instead it accepted the petition in its file.
"S Durga", a Malayalam
movie directed by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, and Ravi Jadhav's Marathi movie "Nude"
were controversially dropped by the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry
from the screening schedule at the IFFI's Indian Panorama section, despite the
jury's approval.
The crew of "S Durga" continues to wallow in uncertainty
over whether the film will be screened at all.