Court refuses to stay release of film Jolly LLB

Delhi High Court Wednesday refused to stay the release of upcoming Hindi film Jolly LLB and reserved its order on a plea alleging that its trailers were defamatory to lawyers.

Delhi High Court Wednesday refused to stay the release of upcoming Hindi film Jolly LLB and reserved its order on a plea alleging that its trailers were defamatory to lawyers.

A division bench of Chief Justice D. Murugesan and Justive V.K. Jain refused to stay the release of the film scheduled for March 15, noting that at this stage "it is difficult to find out in what context" the statements shown in the trailer were said.

The comedy film has been directed by Subhash Kapoor and features Arshad Warsi, Amrita Rao and Boman Irani in lead roles.

The petition was filed by a group of lawyers alleging that the trailers of the movie were not only defamatory to lawyers but also amounted to contempt of court.

"The contents of the film are defamatory. In the film, the lawyers from the Meerut law college have been portrayed in a bad light," said the petition.

Petitioner counsel Jaideep Mallik and Birender Sangwan alleged that "the film contains scenes showing disgraceful act in the court proceedings... thus the certification granted to the said film is liable to be withdrawn or quashed".

Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for the film maker, said the scenes in the movie were "creative expression of the film maker and depiction of the day-today happenings".

Kaul said the trailer of the movie was being aired since January and the petitioners had approached the court just a few days before the release of the film. Such black mail practice had to be stopped, he said.