Karnataka High Court dismisses with ₹50,000 cost a plea opposing release of Jolly LLB 3

The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday dismissed with a cost of ₹50,000 a PIL petition, which had sought a direction to stay the release of the movie Jolly LLB 3, which is scheduled to be released on Friday, alleging that certain dialogues in the trailer of the movie itself are derogatory and are intended to defame and ridicule the judicial system.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Joshi passed the order while dismissing the petition filed by Syed Neelufur, a city-based advocate.

Claiming that the entire movie might contain more ‘derogatory’ comments on the judicial system when a mere trailer itself had a few, the petitioner had sought a direction to the Central Board for Film Certification to re-examine the movie and permit its release only after the ‘objectionable’ dialogues are removed.

The petitioner had also sought a direction to the governments of Karnataka and Maharashtra to register criminal cases against the producer, director, and actors of the movie under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhitha for making defamatory remarks against the judicial system.

Noticing that the movie belongs to the comedy genre, the bench observed that it is obvious that the depiction of the courtroom scene in the movie appears to be aiming to appeal to the audience’s sense of humour, but may not appeal to the sense of humour of the petitioner.

Also, the bench termed the petition as having unjustifiably consumed judicial time while imposing the cost on the petitioner.

The bench also made it clear that if the cost is not deposited with the judiciary, the petition would be listed again for taking coercive steps against the petitioner.