HC refuses to halt screening of ‘Nyay: The Justice’ based on Sushant Singh Rajput

Justice C Hari Shankar, while dismissing the plea filed by Rajput’s father, said that “to fasten a legal right, on something as fleeting as a celebrity, appears to be an oxymoron”

The Delhi high court on Wednesday refused to halt the screening of the movie ‘Nyay: The Justice’, based on late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, saying that his publicity and privacy rights are not heritable and have ended with his demise.

The Delhi high court. (Mint File Photo)

The movie was released on OTT platform Lapalap in June 2021, a year after his death.

Justice C Hari Shankar, while dismissing the plea filed by Rajput’s father, said that “to fasten a legal right, on something as fleeting as a celebrity, appears to be an oxymoron”.

He added that “law cannot allow itself to be a vehicle to promote celebrity culture”.

“It does not appear permissible, in our constitutional scheme which guarantees equality to individuals and in which equality is a cherished preambular goal, to countenance an extra bundle of rights which would be available for enjoyment only to celebrities,” the court said.

“Rights which emanate from one’s personality and persona would be available to one and all, not only to celebrities,” he added.

The judge dismissed the interlocutory injunction suit by the late actor’s father against continued streaming of the film by producers and director, saying that apart, even assuming the film does infract the publicity rights of SSR, or defames him, the infracted right is personal to Rajput, and cannot be said to have been inherited by his father.

“The movie cannot be said to be infracting Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India. Injuncting further dissemination of the movie would, therefore, infract the defendants’ rights under Article 19(1)(a),” the court ruled.