Kerala High Court: Plea Against Malayalam Film Churuli A Publicity Interest Litigation

The Kerala High Court on Monday described PIL as a publicity interest litigation, not public interest litigation as it is known. The PIL sought the removal of a Malayalam mystery-horror film 'Churuli' from the OTT platform and said no statutory provision appeared to have been violated by screening of the movie.

With the observations, Justice P V Kunhikrishnan reserved the judgement on the matter. Additional Advocate-General Grashious Kuriakose, appearing for the Censor Board, said the movie was cleared for public-viewing with an 'A' certification and related warnings.

The court was hearing the petition moved by a lawyer Peggy Fen, who said there was usage of foul language in the film and should be removed from the OTT platform. Earlier, the court termed as atrocious the language used in the film which was released via OTT platform on November 19.

The petition said there were filthy words in the film that could be offensive particularly to women and children. It contended that the movie did not adhere to the censor board rules and regulations and did not display any statutory warning when showing characters using alcohol or smoking, which is mandatory.