india

Updated: Mar 30, 2019 00:04 IST

The Bombay high court (HC) on Friday asked the Election Commission of India (EC) to file a reply on Monday to a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a stay on the April 5 release of the Narendra Modi biopic starring Viveck Oberoi.

The petition states that while the election code of conduct came into effect on March 17, the producer released the trailer of the film ‘PM Narendra Modi’ on March 20, in violation of the code of conduct.

It states: “As Modi will contest the elections as a candidate, by releasing it on 5th of April 2019, the respondent no. 9 (director of the film) will try to influence voters to vote in favour of a particular candidate, which may disturb the execution of free and healthy election process.”

The petitioner, Satish Gaikwad, a social activist, through advocates Swapnil Girme and Tosif Shaikh, told a bench of chief justice Naresh Patil and justice NM Jamdar that the film trailer should also be removed from all social sites/platform/media. The petitioner said the movie, if permitted to be released for public viewing before the elections, would violate the model code of conduct imposed by the EC.