MUMBAI: The Kerala High Court has lifted its stay order on the publication of results of the selection of the Indian Panorama for the 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which is scheduled to begin on 24 November in Goa.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice SR Bannurmath and justice AK Basheer issued the direction today, PTI reported.

Earlier, last month, in the petition before Justice PN Ravindran of the Kerala High Court, Malayalam film director Ranjith said that a film critic who was a member of the jury had posted a comment on a private website announcing the results. He sought a direction to the Ministry to conduct an inquiry into the selection process immediately with particular reference to leaking of the results by a jury member and to conducting the selection process afresh.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Film Festival Directorate had challenged the stay order of Justice Ravindran.

The bench also stayed the earlier direction relating to the production of minutes of the jury and the record sheet which shows the time taken for viewing movies by the jury members for selection of films in the Indian Panorama.

The I&B Ministry also announced the list of films to be shown under the Indian Panorama section, following the court order. IFFI 2009 will have 26 feature films and 18 non features.

Konkani movie Paltadacho Munis will open the section, while other feature films include recent Bollywood releases like Dev. D, Firaaq, Kaminey, Oye Lucky-Lucky Oye and The White Elephant apart from India's official Oscar entry Harishchandrachi Factory.

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High Court stays Goa film fest's selection