BUNNY REUBEN Vs. B J PANCHAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition has been filed under section 482 of the Cr. P. C. for quashing the Criminal Case No. 57/s/91 pending in the 44th Court of Metropolitan Magistrate at Andheri, Bombay filed by the respondent No. 1 as a private complaint.

(2.) THE respondent No. 1 filed the aforesaid private complaint for offence under section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957 against the petitioners on the allegation that about 75 photographs taken by him of the late Shri Raj Kapoor, a cine star and of the wedding of cine star Dimple Kapadia were published in the book under title "raj KAPOOR The Fabulous Showman" without his permission. The said complaint was filed on July 1, 1991 in which the process was issued against the petitioners by the learned Metropolitan Magistrate and, therefore, the present petition for quashing the said complaint.

(3.) THE allegations made in the complaint are that the complainant was free-lance press photographer and as a free-lance news photographer he was intimately connected with the film newspapers, film weeklies, magazines, periodicals. It is further stated that he was also a free-lance journalist and correspondent and in that capacity he used to attend various film functions connected with the film industry and cinema such as Mahurats, film shooting of films in studios or otherwise, song recordings, premiers at cinema theatres, silver jubilee film functions. He also used to attend birth day celebrations, weddings of film stars and wedding anniversaries of film stars. He states that he used to attend the functions on invitations as well as on instructions from newspaper periodicals and film personalities and that he used to regularly attend the functions for the late Raj Kapoor held at R. K. Studios as well as other places and take various photographs of the late Raj Kapoor himself and of Raj Kapoor with others. It is also stated that in the course of his business as a photographer he had also attended the marriage of Dimple Kapadia with Rajesh Khanna and had taken several photographs of Dimple Kapadias marriage for which he was invited by her father who is petitioner No. 3. According to him the late Raj Kapoor used to procure from him the photographs snapped by him as keepsake copies for his personal collections which were meant to be preserved by him as souvenirs and not meant to be printed and/or published without his express permission. However, without his permission the photographs taken by him and given as keepsake copies to late Shri Raj Kapoor and petitioner No. 3 have been published without his permission in the book titled "raj KAPOOR The Fabulous Showman" which was authored by the petitioner No. 1 and was published by National Film Development Corporation Ltd. and printed by Shri Bipin Tanna. According to the complaint in all 75 photographs pertaining to the late Shri Raj Kapoor snapped by him and which were given to Shri Raj Kapoor on his request as keepsake copies, had come into possession of the petitioner No. 2 i. e. wife of Raj Kapoor, which have been printed and published in the said book without obtaining his permission. Similarly the photographs taken at the wedding of Dimple Kapadia, copies whereof were given to petitioner No. 3 as keepsake copies on their request, have been published and printed without obtaining his permission. It is averred in para 7 of the complaint that it is the complainant who had taken the said photographs and he was the author of the same and as such he had exclusive copyright in the said photographs. He claimed to be in possession of the negatives of those photographs. Similarly the allegation is that petitioner No. 1, who is the author of the said book, had surreptitiously printed and published without permission the said photographs infringing and violating the copyright of the complainant-photographer.