No HC relief to writer in Krrish-3 copyright violation case

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today did not entertain an appeal against an order of a single Judge who refused relief to a writer alleging copyright violation of Hindi film ‘Krrish-3’ script, slated to release all over the country tomorrow. A Division Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhangale said it was not inclined to restrain the producer Rakesh Roshan from releasing the film for the simple reason that the prints might have been circulated all over. [caption id=“attachment_1204771” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Courtesy: ibn live[/caption] The judges said they were not granting any relief and posted the appeal for hearing after Diwali vacation. Uday Singh Rajput, a writer from Madhya Pradesh had moved the court claiming that he was the original author of the film’s story and demanded compensation of Rs 2 crore from the producer. However, Judge S J Kathawala, on Tuesday, refused to grant relief. He then filed an appeal. In the appeal, the writer prayed that the Judge had not gone through the script written by him. The film, he said, was completely based on his script which was registered in 2008. However, Roshan was relying on another script registered in 2011 which was identical to his script, Rajput contended. Counsel for appellant, V Sanglikar, argued that Justice Kathawala, while refusing to grant relief, had not compared the two scripts to check infringement of copyright violation. Without comparing the two scripts, how could the judge say that the case was bogus ?, the appellant asked. The lawyer insisted that the defendent (Rakesh Roshan) be asked to deposit Rs 2 crore in the court and only then the film should be allowed to be released. Roshan’s lawyer Nazir Rizvi submitted that his client was not in India during the period when the writer claimed to have met him and given his script for consideration. He said the writer had not met Roshan. The Division Bench said it would hear the matter on merits after the Diwali vacation. Rajput claimed in the suit that he had registered his script titled ‘Krrish-2’ with the Film Writers Association on July 23, 2008. Thereafter, he met Roshan and gave him the script. Roshan promised to pay him if the script was used. However, instead of paying him, Roshan used the same script to make a sequel to film ‘Krrish’ and gave the title as ‘Krrish-3’ instead of ‘Krrish-2’, Rajput alleged. PTI