ANAND PATWARDHAN Vs. DIRECTOR GENERAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Plaintiff is a documentary film maker. The Plaintiff had made interalia a documentary film 'Waves of Revolution' (the suit film) in 1975. The Defendant No.4 acting on behalf of Defendant s 1 to 3 has made a documentary film '26th June 1975' (the impugned film) in 2003. The suit film is about the Bihar Movement led by Jay Prakash Narayan, a Freedom Fighter and a Revolutionary depicting the students' revolt in Bihar which led to and is stated to have been repressed by the Declaration of Emergency in 1975. The impugned film shows in a diametrically different perspective the persons and their actions before and at the time of the Declaration of Emergency. The suit film was telecast in 1977. The impugned film was telecast on 26th June 2003, the anniversary of the Declaration of Emergency.

(2.) THE Plaintiff claims that the Plaintiff had copyright in the suit film, which was breached and infringed because various extracts contained in these incidents were lifted from the suit film and inserted in the impugned film without the Plaintiff's permission or without any payment or any credit offered to the Plaintiff and without his knowledge. The Plaintiff learnt about the documentary only when it was broadcast on the Television by the Defendant s upon being informed that the said film showed parts of the suit film.

(3.) THE Plaintiff follows a secular democratic ideology. The ideology of the persons shown in the impugned film is the 'Hindutva' ideology. It is also the Plaintiff's case that the impugned film shows essentially the acts of certain persons who follow an ideology completely different from that of the Plaintiff and accordingly the several shots of the suit film of the Plaintiff being shown in that impugned film constitutes an act to defame the Plaintiff. It is his case that his friends and acquaintances who viewed the impugned film believed that the Plaintiff has renounced his ideology and had sold himself. Accordingly the Plaintiff claims that his status was lowered and his public image was tarnished which resulted in public loss of face and mental trauma.