The Supreme Court has stayed the release of the movie Hamare Baarah and asked the Bombay High Court to take an expeditious decision on a petition alleging that the film was derogatory to Islam and married Muslim women, Bar and Bench reported.

The film, directed by Kamal Chandra, was slated for release on Friday. It was earlier banned in Karnataka.

The high court had earlier restrained the makers from releasing the movie till June 14. A day later, it ordered the CBFC to form a panel of three individuals, including at least one member from the Muslim community to view the movie. But the court later allowed the film to be released after the producers agreed to delete certain dialogues from it. The panel had sought more time to submit its comments but the court had objected to it.

On Thursday, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta ordered that the screening shall remain paused until the petition is cleared. “We request the high court to dispose of the plea expeditiously,” the court said, according to Bar and Bench.

The counsel representing the filmmaker said all the objectionable scenes were removed from the teasers but the court said that “we saw the teaser today morning and all scenes are there”.

The petitioner argued that the film portrays married Muslim women to have no independent rights as individuals in society due to a verse in the Quran, but the verse has been misread.

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