Akshay Kumar's Jolly LLB 2 faces legal trouble: Petition seeks stay on film

Mumbai: The Supreme Court has asked the producer of Akshay Kumar-starrer Jolly LLB 2 to approach the Bombay high court against its earlier order appointing a three-member committee to review the upcoming film.

A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi said that it was keeping the plea, filed by the film producer in the apex court, pending and asked them to go to the Bombay High Court for relief. “You (producer) go to the high court. We will keep it (plea) pending here,” the bench told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was representing the movie producer.

The film producer, Fox Studios, has approached the apex court against the Bombay High Court order appointing a three-member committee to review the film following allegations that it has made the legal and judicial system a laughing stock.

During the hearing, Sibal told the bench that the movie, which is releasing on February 10, has already been cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and the appointment of panel to review it was not as per law. “We have the CBFC certificate. How can this (review by committee) be done? It is not in accordance with the law,” he said.

When the bench told the producer to go to the high court, Sibal said, “Then the review by the committee should be postponed till the high court decides it”.

However, the bench said, “We will not say anything on that. Let the high court hear it first”.

“We post this matter for further consideration...we leave it to the high court to pass appropriate order,” the bench said.

As Sibal urged the bench to see Jolly LLB 2, Justice Gogoi said “We will not see the film. We will tell you why we will not see the film. We don’t have three hours’ patience. Don’t you think that three hours is too long.”

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court set up the committee to see the film after lawyer Ajaykumar Waghmare (who filed the petition alleging the film shows Indian legal and judiciary professions in a bad light), told the court that the film was an attempt to portray the country’s legal profession and the judicial system in a poor light. “It is an attempt to portray the Indian legal profession and judicial system as a laughing stock to society at large”, Waghmare told the High Court.

The High Court directed for the review of the film by the panel on February 1 and set the next hearing on February 3.