Supreme Court quashes Karnataka Film Chamber’s appeal against dubbing
- The Supreme Court has quashed the application filed by Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce appealing to ban dubbing in films and in small screens.
- The Competition Commission of India and Competition Appellate Tribunal had termed protesting dubbing is a violation of competition Act and had filed Rs 16 lakh to the KFCC.
- Lawyer for Kannada Grahakara Koota quoted that KFCC had written letters to all newspapers instructing them not to publish the advertisements of a dubbed film ‘Coffee Shop’.
- The bench said it has studied only the documents and orders of the said case and cancelled the KFCC’s application.
FollowThe Supreme Court has quashed the application filed by Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) appealing to ban dubbing in films and in small screens. With this the last legal resort to ban dubbing in Kannada industry is closed, reported Kannada Prabha.
The Competition Commission of India and Competition Appellate Tribunal had termed protesting dubbing is a violation of competition Act and had filed Rs 16 lakh to the KFCC. As a last resort the KFCC had appealed to the Supreme Court. A two judge bench headed by justice AK Sikri and justice Ashok Bhushan inquired into the appeal and quashed it even in the primary level of investigation.
Arguing for the HFCC lawyer Balaji Srinivasan said the KFCC has no role in the banning of dubbing, the Competition Commission of India has fined the KFCC wrongly. It is the actors who are opposed to dubbing and not KFCC, he said. Countering this argument Anirudh Deshmukh, lawyer for Kannada Grahakara Koota, said it is not true, the KFCC has a role to play in banning dubbing and Competition Commission of India has mentioned it in its judgement.
He quoted that KFCC had written letters to all newspapers instructing them not to publish the advertisements of a dubbed film ‘Coffee Shop’. The lawyer for KFCC tried to defend it saying the letter was written with regard to tax.
The KFCC lawyer tried to argue that with regard to distribution of films in Karnataka there are 4 sectors. Bengaluru being cosmopolitan films of other languages run more. Hyderabad Karnataka has Telugu dominance. Coastal area has Tulu and in North Karnataka Marathi films run well.
Then the bench said it is not interested in such information and it has studied only the documents and orders of the said case and cancelled the KFCC’s application.
