Madras HC grants interim relief to director Shankar
The Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) proceedings for provisionally attaching properties worth Rs 10.11 crore belonging to Tamil film director S. Shankar in connection with a copyright infringement complaint related to the story of the Rajinikanth-starrer Enthiran.
A division bench comprising Justices M.S. Ramesh and N. Senthilkumar issued the interim stay order while hearing Shankar’s petitions seeking to quash the ED’s provisional attachment order, which was passed on 17 February 2025 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED had acted based on a copyright infringement complaint filed in 2011 by writer Arur Tamilnadan, who alleged that Shankar had copied his story Jiguba.
The case was filed in a metropolitan magistrate court, citing a violation of Section 63 of the Copyright Act and a criminal complaint under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code. The ED took note of the complaint and proceeded with the provisional attachment order.
The division bench, however, pointed out that the agency ought not to have taken such action since a single judge of the High Court had, in 2023, stayed proceedings in the scheduled offence.