Supreme Court stays Kerala HC ban on activist Rehana Fathima

Kochi: The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, stayed the Kerala High Court ban on activist Rehana Fathima, which restricted her from posting any information on social/ electronic media.

The High Court order had come on a case regarding a cookery show where she repeatedly referred to beef preparation as “gomatha ularthiyathu” which apparently hurt Hindu religious sentiments.

The activist, who has repeatedly courted controversies on social media, had used the term ‘gomatha’ a number of times as a synonym for the meat that she was cooking on the show.

On November 24, 2020, restricting Fathima from the same, the High court had said that until the trial in the 2018 case is over, she shall not “directly or indirectly or through any other person publish, transmit, share, upload or disseminate any material or any of her comments through any visual and electronic media open to public”.

In June last year, the Kerala Police had registered a case against her for posting a YouTube video, in which her children were seen painting on her semi-nude body.

In 2018, she had courted a massive controversy, when she trekked to the Sabarimala shrine after the Supreme Court lifted the ban on entry of women in the menstruating age group from entering the shrine.

She was also arrested and jailed for 18 days for a comment on Facebook during the Sabarimala controversy which reportedly hurt the sentiments of Lord Ayyappa devotees.