Court dismisses copyright complaint against Jolly LLB movie's director

New Delhi: A Delhi court has dismissed a complaint seeking lodging of an FIR against the director and producer of movie ‘Jolly LLB’ for allegedly infringing copyright of an author of poems on a similar concept of police indulging in corruption as shown in the film.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Bansal said the treatment given to the concept of corrupt practices in police stations in the film is totally different from that of the complainant and there is no violation of any copyright.

“The concept that police stations indulge in money making through illegal means cannot be subject of copyright of any particular person. The only copyright which can be acquired is regarding the treatment given to the concept by the author. “Any person can treat this concept in his own way and can have copyright for that particular treatment or expression. No author can prevent any other person from expressing the said concept in a different way,” the court said.

Complainant Dinesh Vats, in his complaint, said he has written a book which is a collection of poems including, ‘Thano ki khuli pol’, mentioning about the corrupt practices of police stations.

He alleged that Subhash Kapoor, director of ‘Jolly LLB’, and its producer Fox Star Studio India Pvt Ltd have used his concept in the movie and his copyright has been infringed. He added that he had approached the police to take action against the film director and producer but nothing was done and thereafter he moved the court for registration of an FIR.

The court, however, dismissed his complaint saying, “Complainant (Vats) in his poem has expressed the concept i.e. corrupt practices of police stations, in his own words. “Whereas in the movie scene, the same concept has been expressed in different form. The treatment given to the concept in the movie scene is totally different from that of complainant. There is no similarity between the two.”

PTI