Kerala HC dismisses petition challenging State Film awards

The Kerala High Court on Friday dismissed the petition filed by Malayalam Cine Director M.J.Lijeesh challenging the Kerala State Film Awards for the year 2022.

The Court termed the plea 'frivolous' and dismissed the same, after observing that the pleadings were insufficient and lacked evidence to prove the allegations of nepotism and bias made by the film director.

Lijeesh is the director of the Malayalam movie 'Aakaashathinu Thazhe’ which also contested for the awards.

He claimed that he did not win any award for the film due to nepotism and bias on the part of the jury.

In his petition, it was also pointed out that similar allegations raised by another movie director, Vijayan, who had said that he had evidence against the jury members of the State Awards which could prove bias and nepotism on their part.

The petitioner claimed that by overlooking his film, the Chalachitra Academy had violated his right to equality guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution.

Therefore, he approached the High Court to quash the 2022 awards.

He had also sought the court to direct the State government and the Kerala State Police Chief to conduct an inquiry and take action against film director, Ranjith Balakrishnan, who is the present chairperson of the Kerala Chalachitra Academy.

But the High Court dismissed the petition.