Sujoy Ghosh gets relief, SC dismisses 'Kahaani 2' copyright case
What's the story
The Supreme Court of India has quashed the proceedings against director-writer Sujoy Ghosh in a copyright infringement case related to his movie Kahaani 2. The bench comprising Justices Alok Aradhe and P S Narasimha allowed Ghosh's plea challenging a Jharkhand High Court order from April 2025 that refused to quash the proceedings. The original complaint alleged theft of a script for a film titled Sabak.
Legal proceedings
Notice to the Jharkhand government on Ghosh's plea
In July last year, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Jharkhand government in response to Ghosh's plea seeking to quash the case pending before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court in Hazaribagh. The filmmaker had approached the High Court challenging the CJM court's order, which held that a prima facie case of copyright infringement was made out against him under Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957.
Copyright claims
What was the complaint?
The complainant, Umesh Prasad Mehta, had written a script titled Sabak and got it notarized by a Notary Public in Hazaribagh for securing its copyright. He claimed that he had met Ghosh, who provided him with a recommendation letter that was instrumental in obtaining copyright for the script. He alleged that the filmmaker kept a photocopy of his script and infringed his copyright by producing Kahaani 2.