Another plea against release of Jaya's biopic; orders reserved

: The Madras High Court on Monday reserved its orders on a fresh petition to stall the release of web series 'Queen', inspired by the life of former Chief Minister, late J Jayalalithaa.

After the Court order on a petition from Jayalalithaa's niece Deepa Jayakumar to stall both the movie 'Thalaivi' and the web series 'Queen', another petition filed by P A Joseph came up for hearing before the division bench, comprising Justices M Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha.

The petitioner submitted that the point he wanted to address was how a biopic of a political leader can be allowed to stream for free when the model code of conduct is in force.

The model code came into force on December 2 after the State Election Commission announced that the elections to rural local bodies in Tamil Nadu would be held in two phases on December 27 and 30.

In an identical circumstance, when a biopic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was planned to be released on the eve of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the same was interfered by the Supreme Court and subsequently the release was restricted by the Election Commission, the petitioner submitted.

He further pointed out that the EC had issued a communication on April 10 prohibiting exhibition of biopic/hagiography when the model code is in force.

Citing the communication, the petitioner moved the State Election Commission and made a representation on December 9 about the free streaming of the web series. Since no action was taken on the same, he moved the High Court.

On December 12, the court had declined to grant any relief to Deepa Jayakumar, seeking to restrain some filmmakers from going ahead with the biopic of the late leader.

However, it had directed the producers of 'Thalaivi' to adhere to the undertaking they gave not to cast a stigma on the applicant and depict her in a single scene.