SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, July 27: The Jharkhand High Court has quashed the criminal proceedings against Sarvaprit Singh, who had been arrested in 2018 for posting 32-second video clip featuring the popular Hindi film song ‘Tujhko mirchi lagi to main kya karoon’, a picture of Mentos, the mouth freshener advertisement, and a short video of the then Chief Minister Raghubar Das giving a statement in the Jharkhand Assembly.
A single bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi, in a judgment delivered on July 22, observed that there was mixing of Mentos ad with well known Hindi movie song in the said video. “Looking into the averment made in the complaint, so far as penal Sections 419, 420, 468, 500, 505 of the Indian Penal Code are concerned, the ingredients of these sections are not made out against the petitioner,” the court observed.
The high court also said that the cognizance by the lower court is also not in accordance with law. “What are the materials against the petitioner is not disclosed in the impugned order. For taking cognizance, a detailed order is not required to be passed, however what are the prima facie materials against the accused that is required to be disclosed in the cognizance order, which is lacking in the case in hand,” Justice Dwivedi observed.
The court said that Section 419 of the Indian Penal Code speaks about punishment for cheating by personation, the ingredient of which is not made out against the petitioner by reading the entire complaint.
“Similarly, a case under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code has not been made out,” the court said. The court also trashed the charges leveled against him under of the Trade Marks Act, the Copyrights Act
“From reading Sub-section (1)(l) of Section 52 of the Copyrights Act, it is crystal clear that for literary, dramatic or musical work by an amateur club or society, the Copyrights Act is not applicable,” the court observed.
Notably, Sarvaprit Singh had been arrested by the Ranchi police on April 3, 2018 on the basis of a complaint filed by Perfetti Van Melle India Limited, makers of Mentos mints, whose advertisement campaign was the inspiration behind his parody video.
Singh – who runs a job internship portal and another one dealing with digital signatures as well as a digital studio – had posted the 32-second video on his blog, Made in Ranchi, on his Twitter handle @madeinranchi and his Facebook page on April 1.
The clip showed footage of Raghubar Das yelling “…, mircha lag raha hain” [colloquially, ”you are feeling jealous”] juxtaposed with footage from a Bollywood film song with the lyrics “mirchi lagi” (feeling jealous). In between, the video plays voice overs of the Mentos advertisement.
The charges against Singh included cheating, impersonation, committing fraud, causing public mischief and defamation under the Indian Penal Code as well as under the Copyright Act, the Trade Marks Act and the Information Technology Act.
In the police complaint, Perfetti Van Melle India mentioned infringement of its trademark and copyright. It also stated that the accused sought to “demean and denigrate honourable and respectable chief minister and other political dignitaries of the state of Jharkhand”.
Singh’s counsel Pandey Neeraj Rai, however, submitted that the ognizance has been taken without examining whether the ingredients are made out against the petitioner or not. He further submitted that in absence of any legal evidence, the cognizance has been taken against the petitioner.
He also argued that the video was uploaded in a lighter sense on 01.04.2018. “There was nothing to harm the reputation of any high ups. He further submitted that the said video was not meant for any commercial purpose and admittedly the product has not been used for business or advertisement purpose and accordingly there is no ingredient under Section 63 of the CopyRight Act, Sections 103 and 105 of the Trademark Act and Section 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act against the petitioner.
