New Delhi [India], March 20 : The Supreme Court on Friday quashed criminal proceedings against filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh in a copyright case linked to his film 'Kahaani 2'.
A bench of Justices Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Alok Aradhe set aside the summoning order issued by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hazaribagh, in 2018 and the Jharkhand High Court order refusing to quash the case.
The Court held that the proceedings could not continue and quashed the entire complaint case pending before the CJM.
The case stemmed from a complaint alleging that Ghosh copied a script titled 'Sabak' and used it in 'Kahaani 2' without consent. The Court accepted Ghosh's contention that the Magistrate had not properly applied their mind and that there was no material to establish copyright infringement.
The Court essentially noted that the filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh had already created and registered his story much earlier than the complainant, so the allegation of copying does not make sense.
It noted that the film 'Kahaani 2' was a sequel to the earlier film 'Kahaani', and Ghosh had been working on its story for years. He had registered the synopsis in 2012, a partial script in 2013 and the full script later in the same year under different working titles.
In contrast, the complainant only registered his script in 2015. So, the filmmaker's work clearly came first. Due to this timeline, the Court concluded that the filmmaker could not have copied the complainant's work, since the complainant's script did not even exist at the time.
The Court also finds that the case filed against the filmmaker was baseless and unnecessarily filed to harass him.
"The appellant's work clearly preceded the complainant's script in point of time, and the question of copyright infringement does not arise as the complainant's script was not even in existence when the appellant registered his screenplay. The proceedings instituted against the appellant are manifestly frivolous and vexatious. The summoning order and the High Court order are quashed and set aside. The complaint case pending before the CJM, Hazaribagh, is also quashed... accordingly, the appeal is allowed", the Court noted in its judgement.
'Kahaani 2' was released in theatres in 2016. It starred Vidya Balan and Arjun Rampal in the lead roles.
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