Manu Bhandari v. Kala Vikas Motion Pictures Ltd


Mannu Bhandari v. Kala Vikas Motion Pictures Ltd is a landmark case in the area of Indian copyright law. It is the first decision from the Indian higher judiciary that clarified the scope and ambit of moral rights under the Indian copyright law.

Facts of the case

The plaintiff in this case, Mannu Bhandari,was a famous Hindi language novelist. The defendant produced a motion picture titled Samay Ki Dhara based on plaintiff’s novel Aap Ka Bunty. Though the movie was made under an agreement with the plaintiff, the plaintiff was not happy with the way her work was treated during the adaptation of the novel into the movie. The plaintiff feared that her image would be tarnished if the distorted version of her novel was allowed to be presented through the movie. Hence the plaintiff sought permanent injunction against the screening and exhibition of the movie. Though the parties in the case reached a settlement before the judgment was delivered by the Court, the parties requested the Court to deliver its judgment, as the scope of protection of moral rights in India had not yet been clarified by the higher judiciary in India.

Most Important Issue discussed by the Court

What is the scope and ambit of Section 57 of the Copyright Act, 1957?

Key aspects of the judgement

The court clarified the following important observations in this case -
After giving due consideration to the facts of the case, the court directed the defendant in this case to make certain modifications and deletions in the movie before screening it. However, as the parties had reached a settlement before the judgment was pronounced, the court didn't enforce its findings.

Relevance of the decision from a comparative perspective

like France and Germany give high importance to moral rights protection. For example, German copyright law protects three kinds of moral rights: Right of attribution, integrity, and disclosure. So from a comparative perspective, these countries define moral rights much more widely than India does. On the other hand, the concept of moral rights has witnessed strong resistance in the United States. In 1990, the United States recognized, for the first time, a limited set of moral rights for a limited class of works. These were set out in the “Visual Artists Rights Act” of 1990, and are now embodied in Section 106-A of the American Copyright Act of 1976. Section 106-A does not extend to a host of works such as films that are protected under European moral rights regime.