In a significant relief to filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh, the Supreme Court of India has quashed the criminal proceedings initiated against him in a copyright infringement case related to his 2016 film. Story 2: Durga Rani Singh.
Supreme Court cancels copyright case against Sujoy Ghosh regarding Kahaani 2, calls allegations baseless
According to a Bar & Bench report, the bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe found that there was no substance in the complaint and it failed to establish even a basic comparison between the two works. The court said that the allegations were vague and unsupported, with no clear indication of how the film resembled the complainant’s script.
The case stems from a complaint filed by Umesh Prasad Mehta, who alleged that the title of his script Lesson Was copied for the film. He claimed to have shared his work with Ghosh in 2015. Acting on this complaint, a magistrate court in Hazaribagh had issued summons in 2018 under the provisions of the Copyright Act. Later, the Jharkhand High Court refused to quash the case saying that the matter needed to be heard.
Ghosh later moved the apex court, where his lawyer, senior advocate Siddharth Dave, argued that the complaint did not provide any material evidence demonstrating similarity between the scripts and the proceedings were an abuse of legal process.
The Supreme Court agreed with these arguments and said that both the magistrate’s summoning order and the High Court’s decision lack proper judicial consideration. It also highlighted that the statements of witnesses submitted by the complainant did not establish that any part of the script was copied.
A major factor in the decision was the finding of the Screen Writers’ Association’s dispute settlement committee, which had previously concluded that there was no similarity between the two works. The court said that this important detail was not disclosed to the magistrate while issuing the summons.
Additionally, the bench underlined Ghosh’s script story 2 The complainant’s script was registered long before it was produced, making the allegation of infringement untenable.
Reiterating that courts should avoid frivolous or malicious litigation, the top court stressed the need to examine the circumstances surrounding such cases to prevent misuse of criminal law. It ultimately quashed both the summons order and the High Court judgment, thereby ending the proceedings pending before the trial court.
Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for Sujoy Ghosh, argued the case with the assistance of a team of advocates. As for Ghosh’s 2016 thriller Story 2: Durga Rani SinghThe Vidya Balan-led film revolves around a woman living under an assumed identity while protecting a child, unfolding a layered story of crime, abuse and hidden past. Also starring Arjun Rampal and Jugal Hansraj in the lead roles, the film was expected to be a spiritual sequel to the 2012 blockbuster. Story.
