The Indore Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has refused to halt the release of Haq, a film said to be inspired by the historic Shah Bano case, ruling that the right to privacy and reputation cannot be inherited after death.
The film, featuring Emraan Hashmi and Yami Gautam, is slated to hit theatres on November 7. Shah Bano’s daughter, Siddiqua Begum Khan, had moved the court seeking to block its release, claiming the movie commercializes her late mother’s life and distorts personal events without consent from her family.
Justice Pranay Verma dismissed her plea, observing that personal rights such as privacy and reputation “extinguish with a person’s death” and cannot be treated as property to be passed on.
The court noted that Haq does not portray itself as a biopic but as a fictionalized work inspired by the 1985 Supreme Court judgment that affirmed divorced Muslim women’s right to maintenance. The filmmakers had included a disclaimer clarifying that the movie was a dramatized adaptation drawn from public records.
“Since the film itself declares it to be fictional and an inspiration from a public judgment, some degree of dramatization is permissible,” Justice Verma stated. “It cannot be said that any sensationalization or false portrayal has occurred.”
The court emphasized that once a case becomes part of public record, the right to privacy no longer applies, allowing the press and creative works to comment on or interpret it.
Additionally, the judge noted procedural delays — the petition was filed just days before the film’s release despite the censor certificate already being granted. The court also remarked that the petitioner could have approached the Central government to challenge the certification rather than filing a writ petition.
With these findings, the plea was dismissed, clearing the path for Haq to release as scheduled.
