The Supreme Court Monday dismissed an appeal against an interim order of the Bombay High Court staying the release of "Black Friday", a film based on the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai.

A bench comprising Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti and Justice G.P. Mathur dismissed the special leave petition filed by producers of the film, Mid Day Multimedia Ltd, after hearing senior counsel Ashok Desai, who pleaded for a stay of the high court order.

The bench in its brief order said that since the high court had stated that the interim order was only for a week, it could reconsider it after the expiry of that period.

On a petition filed by Mustaq Musa Tarani and others, accused in the bomb blast case, against the release of the film, the high court had on Thursday stayed the release in theatres across India.

The petitioner had contended that the film, if released, would create a bias against him and other accused in the minds of the public.

The movie is based on a book of the same name published in December 2002, a copyright of which was bought by Mid-Day Multimedia. The film was given a censorship certificate in September 2004 on the condition that the producer would insert a disclaimer at the beginning of the film that it was based on a book and did not impute any innocence or guilt on any of the personalities depicted in the film.

On a petition by 33 accused in the case before the designated Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court in Mumbai, the producers had given an undertaking to delete the words `true story' from the title of the film.

The accused then moved the high court against the TADA court order and the court stayed the release of the film.