The Supreme Court has quashed the copyright infringement case against filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh over his film ‘Kahaani 2’. The Court set aside both the summoning order and High Court decision, bringing complete relief to the director.
The Supreme Court of India on Friday quashed all criminal proceedings pending against filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh in a copyright infringement case related to his film Kahaani 2. The case had been ongoing before a court in Jharkhand.
A bench comprising Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe allowed Ghosh’s plea, which challenged an earlier decision of the Jharkhand High Court dated April 22, 2025. The High Court had refused to quash the proceedings at that stage.
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While granting relief to the filmmaker, the Supreme Court clearly stated,
“The summoning order dated June 7, 2018 passed by the CJM (Chief Judicial Magistrate) and order dated April 22, 2025 passed by the high court are quashed and set aside,”
thereby bringing an end to the case against him.
Earlier, in July last year, the apex court had issued notice to the Jharkhand government after Ghosh approached it seeking to quash the criminal case pending before the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) in Hazaribagh.
The case originally arose after the CJM court found a prima facie case of copyright infringement against Ghosh under Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957. Challenging this, Ghosh had moved the Jharkhand High Court. However, the High Court refused to interfere at that stage and dismissed his plea. It observed that it would not conduct a “mini-trial” at the quashing stage, stating that the issues raised could be properly examined during the trial.
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The complaint was filed by Umesh Prasad Mehta, who claimed that he had written a script titled “Sabak.” According to him, the script had been certified by a Notary Public in Hazaribagh for the purpose of securing copyright protection.
Mehta alleged that he had met Sujoy Ghosh and obtained a recommendation letter from him, which was necessary for processing the copyright of the script. He further claimed that during this interaction, Ghosh retained a photocopy of his script.
The complainant accused Ghosh of knowingly using his script without permission and creating Kahaani 2 based on it. According to Mehta, he later watched the film at a film hub in Hazaribagh and concluded that his original work had been copied.
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Based on these allegations, Mehta claimed that Ghosh had violated his copyright by stealing his script and unlawfully using it in the film.
However, with the Supreme Court now quashing both the CJM’s summoning order and the Jharkhand High Court’s decision, all proceedings against Sujoy Ghosh in this matter have been officially set aside, giving the filmmaker complete legal relief in the case.
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