HC dismisses plea to revoke ban on controversial Punjabi movie Shooter based on gangster’s life

Read Order: KEWAL SINGH v. STATE OF PUNJAB AND ANOTHER 

Vivek Gupta

Chandigarh, July 13, 2021: The Punjab and Haryana High Court today dismissed the plea to revoke the ban on the release of Punjabi movie ‘Shooter’.

Punjab had banned the movie on February 10 last year, two weeks before its official release on February 21, after it argued that the trailer of the film — a biopic on slain gangster Sukha Kahlwan — showed violence and glorified him through visuals and songs.

The Haryana government too passed similar orders banning its release in the state.

The writ petition in the High Court filed by the movie’s producers sought quashing of the February 10, 2020 order of the Punjab government and February 20, 2020 order of the Haryana Government whereby exhibition of the movie in question was suspended.

A bench of Justice Lisa Gill said, “Admittedly, both the said orders are specifically stated to remain in force for the period of two months, thereby the present petition filed on July 1, 2021 is  is clearly not maintainable”.

The HC further said as per order/notification dated July 12, 2021 issued by the State of Punjab, exhibition of the film has been suspended till further orders.

The counsel for the petitioner, thus, withdrew the writ petition with liberty to the petitioner, if so advised, to challenge latest notification dated 12.07.2021.

“Dismissed as withdrawn with liberty as aforementioned,” the high court said.

After the ban, the movie’s producers stated in an interview that the plot of the movie has been changed. But the state did not review the decision.

Sukha Kahlon was a popular gangster, from Kahlwan village in Punjab’s Kapurthala district. He was famous for his shooting skills.

Kahlon was killed on January 21, 2015 on the Jalandhar-Ludhiana NH-1 at the outskirts of Phagwara while he was in police custody and was being taken to the high security Nabha jail after a court hearing in the murder case of Lovely Baba in Kapurthala.

According to the complaint of ASI Nirmal Singh, who was the head of the team taking Kahlwan to Nabha, there were a dozen unidentified assailants in two vehicles who had chased the police vehicle and then killed him.