SC Grants Relief To Sujoy Ghosh, Dismisses Kahaani 2 Script Theft Case

The Supreme Court has quashed a criminal case against Sujoy Ghosh over his film Kahaani 2. The case was filed by Umesh Mehta, who alleged that Ghosh had copied his script Sabak after it was shared in 2015.

Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani 2 was released in 2016.

Source : Instagram/@sujoyghoshofficial

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Key points generated by AI, verified by newsroom

• Supreme Court quashes criminal case against director Sujoy Ghosh.
• Case stemmed from writer's plagiarism claims over Kahaani 2.
• Ghosh argued script was written and registered years earlier.
• Court ruled against civil dispute being turned into criminal case.

Film director Sujoy Ghosh has received major relief from the Supreme Court, which has quashed a criminal case filed in connection with his 2016 film Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh. The case was pending in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. It had been filed by a writer who claimed that the film was based on his script.

Kahaani 2 Script Theft Case

The dispute began when Umesh Prasad Mehta from Hazaribagh accused Ghosh of stealing his unpublished script titled Sabak. Mehta alleged that Kahaani 2 was based on his work and filed a criminal case under Section 63 of the Copyright Act.

According to Mehta, he had shared his script with Ghosh in 2015 in hopes of obtaining a recommendation letter for copyright registration. However, he alleged that Ghosh went on to make the film without informing him.

Acting on Mehta’s complaint, the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court issued a summons to Ghosh on June 7, 2018. Challenging this, Ghosh approached the Jharkhand High Court. On April 22, 2025, the High Court declined to intervene at the summons stage and directed him to present his case before the CJM court.

After failing to get relief from the High Court, Ghosh moved Supreme Court. He argued that he had written the film’s script in 2012 and had it registered with the Screenwriters Association in December 2013. Therefore, he contended, the complainant’s claim of sharing the script in 2015 was baseless.

Ghosh also argued that a civil dispute had been wrongly turned into a criminal case and questioned why the case was filed in Hazaribagh instead of Mumbai, suggesting it was done to harass him.

After hearing both sides, a bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice R. Mahadevan had reserved its verdict on March 10. The Supreme Court has now quashed the case, granting relief to Ghosh.

About Kahaani 2

Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh, starring Vidya Balan and Arjun Rampal, was released in 2016. Written and directed by Sujoy Ghosh, the film serves as a sequel to the 2012 hit Kahaani. It was declared tax-free in Uttar Pradesh on December 15, 2016.