Kerala High Court Issues Notice On Plea Against 'Oru Jaathi Jathakam' Movie For Allegedly 'Humiliating' Members Of LGBTQ+ Community

The petitioner has submitted that the movie uses derogatory words to refer to the community. The petitioner argued that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) by allowing the exhibition of the film violated the right to dignity under Article 21 of the members of the marginalized community. It is also urged that the CBFC acted arbitrarily, and unreasonably and violated Article 14 by refusing to take corrective steps despite receiving a complaint in this regard.

The petitioner has prayed before the High Court to direct the State to take action against the director and production company for committing an offence under Section 18 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. As per the provision, a person who harms, injures or endangers the life, safety health or well-being whether mental or physical of a transgender person or tends to do acts including causing physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse and economic abuse shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term between six months and 2 years with fine.

The petitioner has also urged the Court to issue a direction to beep or censor humiliating words or dialogues against the community in the movie and to ensure that no such dialogues are present in any copies including those given to OTT platforms. There is also a prayer to ensure strict compliance with the film certificate guidelines so as to ensure that such offensive content against the community does not remain in movies in future.

On Friday (7^th February), Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas issued notice to CBFC, the production company and the director of the movie. The case is next posted on 28^th February.

The petition is moved by Advocates Padma Lakshmi, Meenakshi K. B.

Case Title: Shakiy S. Priyamvadha v The Chairman, CBFC

Case No: WP(C) 5164/ 2025