Supreme Court Quashes Criminal Proceedings for Copyright Infringement Against Writer-Director Sujoy Ghosh in Relation to His Film ‘Kahaani – 2’
by Nidhish Mehrotra, Anushree Rauta, Shwetank Tripathi, Devangini Rai along with Senior Counsel Siddharth Dave, Counsel Harsh Kaushik, and AOR Anu Shrivastava
In the matter of Sujoy Ghosh v State of Jharkhand & Anr, SLP (Criminal) 9452/2025, the Hon’ble Supreme Court passed a judgment and order dated 20 March 2026 (Judgment) thereby quashing the order passed by Jharkhand High Court (High Court) in a petition under Section 482 of CrPC filed by the petitioner against a summoning order passed by CJM, Hazaribagh, Jharkhand (Trial Court).
The present case arose from a criminal complaint filed by one Umesh Prasad Mehta (complainant) before the Trial Court alleging that he had travelled to Mumbai in July 2015 and provided a copy of his story titled ‘Sabak’ to the petitioner and one more person. It was further alleged that the petitioner herein had promised to make a film based on his story. In 2016, when the petitioner’s film ‘Kahaani – 2′ was released, the complainant noticed that his story was used to make the film. The complainant claimed to have filed a complaint before Screen Writers’ Association as well.
The Trial Court based on the statement of the complainant and his 2 brothers proceeded to issue summons to the petitioner in 2018. The petitioner challenged the summoning order before the High Court which was dismissed by the High Court in 2025. Against the High Court’s order, the present petition was filed before the Supreme Court. Initially, the Supreme Court vide an order dated 2 July 2025 granted an interim relief dispensing with the personal appearance of the petitioner before the Trial Court till the pendency of the petition before Supreme Court.
After hearing both sides, the Hon’ble Supreme Court passed the Judgment observing that the complaint before the Trial Court only contained bald and unsubstantiated allegations of copyright infringement without disclosing any prima facie similarity between the 2 works. The Court further observed that the summoning order of the Trial Court was mechanical and suffered from the vice of non-application of mind. The Court also took note of an order passed by expert committee of Screen Writers’ Association which had dismissed the complainant’s complaint and the complainant did not disclose the same before the Trial Court. The Court further considered the documents filed by the petitioner showing that he had created and registered his script with Screen Writers’ Association in 2013 i.e. much before the complainant’s registration in 2015. The Supreme Court finally held that the complaint was frivolous and vexatious, and accordingly, the summoning order as well as further proceedings before the Trial Court was quashed and set aside.
ANM Global comprising of Mr. Nidhish Mehtrotra, Ms. Anushree Rauta, Shwetank Tripathi, Devangini Rai along with Senior Counsel Mr. Siddharth Dave, counsel Harsh Kaushik and AOR Anu Shrivastava represented the petitioner before the Supreme Court.
