CHENNAI: If the production of a film is not commenced within one year from the date of its title registration and even after a grace period of six months, the person who made the registration cannot claim any right over the title, the Madras High Court has ruled.
The First Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose made the ruling, while allowing a civil appeal from Lyca Productions by its producer Subash Karan of T Nagar on Thursday.
The appeal challenged an order dated February 19 of a Single Judge, which favoured J Manimaran, the proprietor of JS Screens in MGR Nagar.
Accepting the contentions of advocate P L Narayanan, the Bench observed that the material showed that pooja was performed by Manimaran only on September 9, 2013, for the title ‘KARU’ that he had registered on November 3, 2011. As per the rules, if production work does not commence during the year of registration, then renewal for another six months only was to be considered by the executive committee of the Film Producer Council on furnishing satisfactory reasons.
As contended by Narayanan, admittedly, there is no statute, rule or regulation requiring the registration of a title for production of a film. If Lyca and JS Screens were members of the same organisation, they may have contractually been bound by the internal rules and regulations of the organisation, the Bench said.
The earlier registration by JS Screens of the title ‘KARU’ does not confer any right to it to exclusive use of the title so registered, to the exclusion of other producers. Whether or not there is any dispute with regard to the dates of registration of the respective titles by Lyca or JS screens, is not the material.
In the absence of any statutory or contractual right, JS Screens cannot injunct others from using the title. In any case, the title is different preceded by ‘LYCAVIN KARU’. Even assuming that the cinematographic film of JS Screens is 90 per cent complete as claimed, the film of Lyca Productions is complete and scheduled to be released on February 23 last, the Bench said and allowed the appeal and paved the way for the release of the film.