NEW DELHI: The apex court on Thursday agreed to hear on April 8 a Congress leader’s plea seeking deferment of release of PM Narendra Modi’s biopic till the Lok Sabha polls are over, saying the film was designed to manipulate and influence voters. A bench of Justices S A Bobde, S Abdul Nazeer and Indira Banerjee said it will hear the plea on Monday.
The biopic, titled PM Narendra Modi, which was slated to be released on April 5, has been postponed till further notice.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for petitioner advocate Aman Panwar, said two high courts had refused to interfere with the film’s release and sought urgent listing of the matter. Singhvi submitted that the film’s release may affect free and fair election as mandated in the Constitution and therefore they have filed a writ petition in the SC.
The plea sought direction from the court declaring that advertisement and promotion of the movie during the operation of the Model Code of Conduct violates electoral laws. Meanwhile, the EC said it will take a final call on the film’s release on Friday. “We have sought comments from the producer of the movie and also from BJP’s general secretary...that also has been received,” Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena told reporters.