Madhya Pradesh HC dismisses Shah Bano Begum’s daughter's plea against release of Emraan Hashmi, Yami Gautam film Haq

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has dismissed a petition filed by the daughter of Shah Bano Begum seeking a stay on the release of Hindi film Haq.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has dismissed a petition filed by the daughter of Shah Bano Begum against the release of the Hindi film Haq. Starring Yami Gautam Dhar and Emraan Hashmi in the lead roles, Haq is inspired by the life and legal struggle of Shah Bano Begum, whose landmark case in 1985 led the Supreme Court to grant divorced Muslim women the right to maintenance.

A still from Emraan Hashmi, Yami Gautam's film Haq, which is set to release on November 7.

What the Court dismissal shared

Shah Bano Begum's daughter, Siddiqua Begum Khan, had sought a stay on the release of the film, claiming that the film was made without the family's consent and misrepresented personal aspects of her late mother's life, reported Bar and Bench. She claimed that the film commercially exploits the privacy and personality of her deceased mother without taking consent from her legal heirs.

Justice Pranay Verma of the Indore bench dismissed these claims and said in the order, “Privacy or reputation earned by a person during his or her lifetime extinguishes with his or her death. It cannot be inherited like a movable or immovable property."

‘Some amount of leeway is certainly permissible’

The Court went on to add, “Since the disclaimer itself states that the same is dramatization and is fictional and an adaptation of a book and is inspired by a judgment of the Apex Court, it cannot be said that the contents of the film are fabricated. Since the film is an inspiration and a fiction, some amount of leeway is certainly permissible and merely because the same is done, it cannot be said that there has been any sensationalization or false portrayal.”

Haq, directed by Suparn S Verma, is based on the landmark 1985 Shah Bano case, which concerned women's rights and maintenance laws in India. In 1978, Shah Bano, then 62, filed a petition in the Indore court seeking maintenance from her divorced husband, Mohammed Ahmed Khan, an affluent and well-known lawyer.

The couple had married in 1932 and had five children. In 1985, the Supreme Court ruled that Shah Bano was entitled to maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. However, the following year, the Rajiv Gandhi government passed legislation that effectively nullified the verdict. The film is set to release in theatres on Friday (November 7).