A Mumbai Civil Court has ordered temporary restrain on access
A Mumbai Civil Court has ordered temporary restrain on access to an online mobile game titled ‘Selmon Bhoi’ that is based on the hit and run case connected to the Bollywood Actor Salman Khan.
Salman Khan v. Parody Studios Pvt Ltd and Ors
The Additional Session Judge KM Jaiswal has granted a temporary injunction restraining Parody Studios Pvt. Ltd from disseminating, launching, re-launching and recreating the game or any other content relating to the actor also restrained the defendant from making any derogatory comments against Salman Khan by making the game available.
Further, they have been directed to immediately take down or block or disable access to the game from Google Play Store and all other platforms.
The court noted that the make of the game, the images and the mechanical features have been given “impressionistic resemblance” to Salman Khan.
The court observed that Khan had not consented to install, prepare or run the game and hence he was deprived of his right to privacy and his image was tarnished.
Salman Khan had moved a Bombay Civil Court against one Parody Studios Pvt Ltd and its Directors, Google LLC and Google India Pvt Ltd, seeking various injunctive and other reliefs concerning the game titled “Selmon Bhoi” available on Google Play Store.
Salman Khan stated in his plea that the title of the game “Selmon Bhoi” sounded phonetically similar to what he was popularly called by his fans “Salman Bhai”. It was further submitted that the images displayed in the game appears to be a caricature version of him and recreate the alleged events of the Hit and Run case and Blackbuck case involving him, which are sub-judice before courts.
The plea alleged that the defendants intentionally gained the commercial advantage by exploiting the personality rights of Salman Khan without seeking his consent. Such use has tarnished his reputation and goodwill by displaying factually incorrect and misleading information, which remains outside the purview of Article 19 of the Constitution of India. He also submitted that his right to privacy and to reputation under Article 21 of the Constitution of India was violated.
The Court observed that a prima facie case for ad-interim relief was made out as the defendants had used Salman Khan’s identity for their commercial gain.
“Till the defendants file the reply and as the prima facie case is made out by the plaintiff, the balance of convenience also lies in his favour and if no ad-interim reliefs are granted the plaintiff will suffer irreparable loss which cannot be compensated in terms of money.” the court said.
