HYDERABAD: Making it clear that the courts cannot curtail the fundamental rights of the citizens such as freedom of expression, a division bench of Telangana High Court on Tuesday dismissed the PIL filed against release of two Telugu films titled “Lakshmi’s NTR” and “Lakshmi’s Veera Grandham” slated to be released on March 22 and April 8 this year.
The bench comprising Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice A Rajasheker Reddy was dismissing the PIL filed by an activist VDVV Satyanarayana with a plea to stay the release of the above two films.
The petitioner’s counsel told the court that the release of the said two films would cause mutual hatred, tensions between the people following the ideology of two opposite political parties which were contesting the ensuing Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh and Lok Sabha elections in Telangana scheduled to be held on April 11.
There might be a flare up of law and order situation in Telangana if the two films were released at this juncture, he added and urged the court to stay the release of the two movies. There was no response from the Election Commission to the representation he made on the issue, he pointed out.
After hearing the submissions of the counsel, the bench asked how can one crush the opinion of a particular person? Though the said movies were based on political rivalry, the courts cannot put curbs on the fundamental rights of the citizens from expressing themselves.
The petitioner cannot make the high court a boardroom to adjudicate a person’s opinion. If there were any instances of hatred or law and order problem after the release of the said films, the government and police were well equipped to deal with such type of instances, the bench observed and dismissed the PIL paving way for the release of the two films.