Karnataka High Court Imposes ₹50K Cost On Plea Seeking To Stall Release Of 'Jolly LLB 3' Film

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday dismissed a public interest litigation filed seeking a direction to stop the release and exhibition of the film Jolly LLB 3 scheduled for release on September 19.

A division bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C M Joshi dismissed the petition filed by Syeda Neelufur and imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the petitioner for unjustifiable consumption of judicial time.

The court has directed the cost to be deposited with the court registry, failing which, the matter is to be listed again on October 4 for coercive steps against the petitioner.

The counsel for the petitioner pointed out a scene from the teaser recently released of the film and argued that the dialogues are derogatory and malign the sanctity of the judicial system, including the Judges and Advocates

To which the bench said, "It is a humorous movie no. It is supposed to appeal to somebody's sense of humor; it may not appeal to yours and ours. It does not mean that it can be stiffened.”

In its order the court said “It is obvious that the depiction of the court room scene appears to be eyeing to appeal to the sense of humour of the audience, the depiction of the court room does not appeal to the sense of the humour of the petitioner or this court. That is no ground to stifle creativity or issue an order for censoring the same.”

It added “We find that such PIL's unjustifiably consume judicial time and accordingly the petition is filed for some purpose. We accordingly dismiss the petition with a cost of Rs 50,000 to be deposited with the registry of the court. If the deposit is not made post the matter for listing on October 4, for taking coercive steps.”

The plea also sought directions to authorities to investigate the matter and initiate appropriate legal action against the Actors and Makers of the film, under relevant provisions of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 and Information Technology Act 2000 as the statements and actions shown in the film as being defamatory and violative of the above laws. Further directed the respondents--Actors/Makers of the film to render an unconditional apology by way of publication in prominent national newspapers.

Case Title: Syeda Neelfur AND Union of India & Others

Case No: WP 27215/2025

Citation No: 2025 LiveLaw (Kar) 310