Delhi HC dismisses plea seeking stay on release of 'Bharat'

The Delhi High Court Monday dismissed a plea that sought a stay on the release of Salman Khan-starrer "Bharat" on the grounds that it is "inappropriate" to name a film after the official name of the country.

The film is slated for release on June 5.

A vacation bench of justices J R Midha and Chander Shekhar said it was of the view that the petition was filed to draw mileage from it and the plea was premature as the petitioner has not yet seen the movie.

The court also pulled up petitioner Vikas Tyagi for circulating the petition in the media before it was listed.

The plea had said that the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act prohibited the use of the name 'Bharat' for any trade, business, profession, or in a title of any patent and in any trademark.

The petition had said that according to the Constitution, 'Bharat' is the official name of the country and it was inappropriate to name a film after it.

"I feel it is not appropriate to name such film or any character associated with this film after our great nation. It is distorting the cultural and political image of our great country 'Bharat'...," it had alleged.

It had also sought directions to director Ali Abbas Zafar, production houses Real Life Production Pvt Ltd and Salman Khan Films, actor Salman Khan, Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and the Centre to change any dialogue that was related to 'Bharat' and where the character has been compared with the country.

The plea had further sought an interim stay on the release of the film. It has claimed that the movie was "merely a shameless, cunning stratagem to encash the deep-rooted feeling for our country".

"The court will have to put an end to such tricks to encash the people's patriotic sentiments," the plea had said.

It had added that though there was nothing objectionable in the movie, when it was linked with our nation, it is inappropriate to correlate content of movie with its title.

"A 'country' whose tradition and culture have been running for thousands of years cannot be exhibited by any single character or contained in any character," the plea had said.