Post by : Meena Ariff

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has thrown out a suit by Siddiqua Begum Khan, daughter of Shah Bano Begum, seeking to stop the Hindi film Haq from being released. The movie, featuring Yami Gautam Dhar and Emraan Hashmi, draws on Shah Bano’s 1985 legal struggle over maintenance rights for divorced Muslim women.

Siddiqua had urged the court to pause the film’s release, saying it was produced without the family’s consent and distorted personal details of her mother’s life. She argued the portrayal exploited Shah Bano’s identity for commercial gain.

Justice Pranay Verma, sitting at the Indore bench, dismissed those contentions, observing that a person’s reputation or privacy rights do not survive their death and therefore cannot be inherited like property.

The bench also noted the movie’s disclaimer that it is a dramatization and a fictional adaptation inspired by an appellate judgment and a book. The court said such a creative approach permits some fiction and does not amount to deliberate sensationalism or false depiction.

Directed by Suparn S Verma, Haq revisits the 1985 Shah Bano judgment under Section 125 of the CrPC, after her 1978 plea for maintenance from her divorced husband Mohammed Ahmed Khan. The Supreme Court had ruled for Shah Bano, but subsequent legislation in 1986 curtailed that outcome. Haq is scheduled to open in theatres on November 7, 2025.

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