The Supreme Court has sought a written response from Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Mayor Balen Shah in the contempt of court petition filed against him.
A single bench of Justice Til Prasad Acharya, hearing the application on Tuesday, ordered Shah to furnish a written response, according to Supreme Court spokesperson Bimal Paudel.
Advocate Barsha Kumari Jha had filed the contempt of court application against Shah at the apex court on Sunday.
Writing on social media, Shah had called the federal government and the court Indian slaves on Thursday after the Patan High Court issued an interim order against the KMC’s decision to ban screening of Hindi movies inside the KMC. Expressing his dissatisfaction over the court’s order to allow screening of Hindi movies, Shah had said that he would not comply with the law and the court’s order.
“I am not going to comply with any law and court as far as the country’s sovereignty and independence is concerned. Their intent becomes clear when film’s writer says Nepal was under India. That the Government of Nepal called this thing a stunt, and the court instructing to allow screening of film means Nepal was under India, and the court and the government are Indian slaves. I am ready to face any punishment for that but the film will not be screened or allowed to be screened,” Shah had posted on Facebook.
Nepal Motion Picture Association, an umbrella organization of cinema hall operators, had filed a petition at the Patan High Court on Wednesday against the KMC's decision to ban screening of Hindi movies.
Mayor Shah, City Police, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Ministry of Communication and Information Technology had been made defendants in the petition.
Shah had announced a ban on screening of Hindi movies from Monday until the dialog “Janaki is the daughter of Bharat” was removed from the movie “Adipurush”. But the movie producer and the Film Censor Board, Nepal have already said that the movie does not contain any such dialog.
