Delhi High Court adjourns the plea to put a stay on the release of John Abraham's 'Batla House'

By Tanmayi Savadi

on August 09, 2019

The release of John Abraham's thriller Batla House encountered a slight hiccup in the first week of August when the primary accused of Batla House encounter case- Ariz Khan and Shehzad Ahmad filed a plea in the Delhi High Court to put a stay on the release of the film based on the incident that took place in Delhi in 2008. Now, in the latest development surrounding this matter, the Delhi High Court has adjourned the plea till August 13, 2019. A single-judge bench of Justice Vibhu Bakhru asked the petitioners to file an additional affidavit highlighting the relation between the scenes in the film and those accused in the case.

"If it (film) has the propensity to affect the trial, then the release has to stay," the Delhi High Court observed. Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan is representing Ariz and Shehzad, Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul is from the producers of Batla House's side.

Poster of Batla House

Speaking of the petition, it sought a direction to the Center to organise a pre-screening of Batla House. The plea further stated that the poster and promotional videos of the film claim that the sequence of events is inspired by true events, which creates the impression the film depicts a true account of events in the Batla House encounter. "Although the courts discharge their duties in a free and fair manner and are not likely to be affected by events portrayed in a movie...the release of such a movie would prejudice the outcome of the trial. The events portrayed in the film will prejudice the trial especially as there has been an effort to connect the two incidents i.e. Batla House and the Delhi serial blasts," the plea stated.

Batla House orbits around the alleged police encounter that took place in Delhi in the wake of the serial blasts of 2008. The film apart from John stars Mrunal Thakur and Ravi Kishan and is directed by Nikkhil Advani. Produced by T-Series’ Bhushan Kumar, Divya Khosla Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Emmay Entertainment’s Monisha Advani, Madhu Bhojwani & JA Entertainment in association with Bake My Cake Films’ Sandeep Leyzell, the film will release on 15th August 2019.

(Source: Inputs from IANS)