The Supreme Court told the petitioners that the plea to stay the release of The Kerala Story could not be clubbed with other instances of hate speech.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to immediately take up a plea seeking a stay on the release of the controversial movie ‘The Kerala Story’, pointing out that the movie has already been cleared by the censor board and that the petitioners should instead challenge the film’s certification before an appropriate authority.

A bench of justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna, which is currently seized of a clutch of matters relating to hate speeches, said that the plea to stay the release of the movie cannot be clubbed with the other instances of hate speech since the exhibition of films entails a different process.

“This has gone through certification. We cannot make it a part of the hate speech case. You should move the high court or any other appropriate forum but this cannot be here,” the bench told senior counsel Kapil Sibal and advocate Nizam Pasha, as they urged the bench to hear their plea.

Pasha, on his part, pointed out that the YouTube trailer of the movie already had 16 million views. “This is the worst instance of hate speech. This is audio-visual propaganda. We do not have time for any other remedy and that’s how we are here before the highest court of the land. This movie will release on Friday,” he contended.

But the bench declined.

“We cannot tag it with the hate speech case. There is a difference between this and other matters you brought to our notice. Why don’t you move the concerned high court first? See, a board had certified it, through a process,” the bench told Pasha.

Sibal requested the bench to reconsider its views. “Please, look at the transcript of the YouTube trailer during the lunch recess and then take a call. We will also file a substantive petition by tomorrow,” the senior counsel told the judges.

But the bench retorted: “In substance, it’s a different medium. This has gone through a process of certification. Unless you challenge the certification, we can’t do anything. We are nobody to advise you here. But you should go to the jurisdictional high court. You cannot start everything here at the Supreme Court...This may not be the forum where you will get your relief,” it told Sibal.

With the writing on the wall, Sibal said that he would mull over approaching a different forum to get a stay on the movie’s release on Friday.

‘The Kerala Story’ is directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Shah. The Adah Sharma-starred film is based on 21 people who went missing in 2016 and reportedly joined the Islamic State. The trailer of the movie claims that 32,000 women from Kerala were forcibly converted and allegedly recruited into ISIS.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday hit out at the makers of the film, alleging that they were pushing the propaganda of Sangh Parivar (a term used to refer to organisations affiliated to or inspired by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological fount) of projecting the southern state as a centre of religious extremism.