Hyderabad Civil Court issues a directive for Ekta Kapoor's Lock Upp

Hyderabad Civil Court has put forth a court order against Ekta Kapoor’s reality show, 'Lock Upp'. 

 

The court order was passed by the XI additional chief judge at Hyderabad Civil Court on 29 April 2022 after conducting a trial and checking the documents of the petitioner. 

 

The petitioner Abdul Haleem Baig claims to be the sole rights holder of the story and the script of the concept named, ‘The Jail’.

 

With this order, Alt Balaji, MX Player, and Endemol Shine, are prohibited from exhibiting the series on any electronic media, social media, or OTT platform. 

 

Before this, the Telangana High Court, in the last week of February 2022, set aside the ad-interim injunction granted by the trial court against releasing, exhibiting, and publishing the series.

 

The plaintiff argued that the concept was owned by Pride Media with Baig as its proprietor. The series was written by Shaantanu Ray and Sheershak Anand and registered under the copyright act of 7 March 2018 and registered at the Film Writers Association.

 

In his petition, Baig described how the shows concept was developed and explained it in detail, giving the details of the money invested by him at various stages of concept development.

 

The court had earlier taken on record the video clip of the trailer of Lock Upp and passed an ad-interim injunction order with an urgent notice prohibiting the exhibition of the show.

 

Baig said, “I connected with the respective companies and requested them not to go ahead with the concept. But they turned a deaf ear and challenged that they have every right to stream as per the schedule. I had no option but to seek redressal from the judiciary. Since the show is not only similar to our concept but an absolute copy of the same, it’s a total infringement of the copyright and I have got a permanent injunction order. In spite of the court order, I see the show being aired, which is a contempt of the order. I am going to approach the court again, I have full faith in the judiciary and am sure that justice will be served."