Kahani 2 copyright infringement case: Supreme Court stays coercive action against filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh
The Supreme Courtroom on Wednesday stayed coercive motion in opposition to filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh in a prison case associated to alleged copyright infringement over his 2016 movie ‘Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh’.
The Bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice R Mahadevan additional exempted Ghosh from private look earlier than the Justice of the Peace through the pendency of the proceedings.
The Apex Courtroom handed the order on an enchantment filed by Ghosh in opposition to a Jharkhand Excessive Courtroom order that refused to quash the prison case registered in opposition to him underneath Part 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957.
One Umesh Prasad Mehta had filed a prison grievance in opposition to Ghosh alleging that the script of Kahaani 2 was copied from his personal work titled Sabak. He claimed to have handed over the script to Ghosh in June 2015 to acquire a suggestion letter required for registration. As per the complainant, Ghosh later used the fabric within the film with out his consent.
As per the complainant, the movie was a replica of his work and amounted to theft of his artistic content material. Primarily based on his grievance, the Chief Judicial Justice of the Peace of Hazaribagh recorded statements and issued summons to Ghosh on June 7, 2018, after discovering a prima facie case of copyright infringement.
Ghosh moved the Jharkhand Excessive Courtroom in search of to quash the proceedings underneath Part 482 of the Code of Felony Process. He argued that the grievance was false and that he had neither met the complainant nor obtained any script from him.
As per Ghosh, he started engaged on Kahaani 2 in 2012 and had registered the ultimate script with the Display screen Writers Affiliation by December 2013, properly earlier than the alleged script change in 2015.
The Excessive Courtroom dismissed Ghosh’s plea on April 22, 2025 on the grounds that it might not conduct a “mini-trial” on the quashing stage. It was not for the Excessive Courtroom to judge the deserves or examine the 2 scripts at this stage. The problems raised might be examined throughout trial.
Senior Advocate Siddhartha Dave, showing for Ghosh earlier than the Apex Courtroom, reiterated that the Justice of the Peace had handed the summoning order with out evaluating the scripts or conducting any utility of thoughts. The grievance didn’t disclose even a prima facie case and no materials was positioned to assist the cost.
Dave additional questioned the territorial jurisdiction of the Hazaribagh court docket, stating that the complete manufacturing course of came about in Mumbai and that the grievance couldn’t be maintained in Jharkhand.
