Karnataka - Hassan   

Case against Belagere posted to March 4

HASSAN: Senior Division Civil Judge and Chief Judicial Magistrate N.C. Srinivas here on Saturday rejected the interim application filed by Ravi Belagere, producer of the film, Mukhya Mantri I Love You.

Mr. Belagere filed written objection to the plaint of the former Chief Minister H.D. Deve Gowda. Judge Srinivas posted the case to Match 4 for arguments.

Mr. Deve Gowda had filed a suit seeking damages for Rs. 10 crore and also seeking permanent injunction against producing the film.

Mr. Belagere said the entire plaint was based on imagination of the plaintiff (Deve Gowda). There could be no cause of action for the plaintiff till the film was released.

Mr. Belagere said he had been dragged to an unnecessary suit only to harass and to obstruct the production of the film.

The film was only a fiction and that there was no basis for the plaintiff to suspect the character in the film was about himself and the members of his family.

Mr. Belagere said the court had no jurisdiction to try this case and that there was no cause of action.

The judge rejected the interim application filed by Mr. Belagere and that he had already answered while granting interim injunction order on December 18, 2007 that there was cause of action in this case and that this court had the jurisdiction to hear the case. Hence he could not accept the interim application filed by defendant. The counsel for Mr. Deve Gowda said the court passed its order that it had the jurisdiction to try the case and that there was cause of action.

Mr. Belagere filed written statement to counter the plaint by Mr. Deve Gowda on December 13, 2007 claiming damages for Rs. 10 crore and seeking permanent injection to ban shooting of the film.

He said the allegation made by Mr. Deve Gowda was baseless.

He had not made any attempt to defame the plaintiff at the behest of his political opponents.

The film was only a work of fiction, he said. Mr. Belagere said that in none of the interviews had the defendant ever stated that the movie, Mukhya Mantri I Love You was about the plaintiff and members of his family.

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