US EDITION
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Criminal case filed against Odissi guru for plagiarism

Well-known Odissi dance guru Kelucharan Mahapatra has been charged with criminal offence for publishing a literary work of a musician in his own name in a magazine.

Sub-divisional judicial magistrate L N Sahu, who took cognizance of the offence under Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957, held there were sufficient material to proceed against Mahapatra and his son Ratikanta under Section 204 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

While issuing summons to both on a petition filed by Kanhayalal Sharma, a classical musician and an approved artiste of AIR and Doordarshan, the court has fixed June 25 for further hearing.

The petition accused the Odissi exponent of not only unauthorisedly reproducing an original literary work of the petitioner, but also publishing it under his own name in a magazine named Srjan of which Mahapatra's son is a director.

The petitioner, Sharma, who wrote an editorial titled 'From the editor's desk' way back in 1990 for his organisation 'Abhinaya', alleged that Mahapatra had published the same in Srjan last year under his own name, which was an infringement of copyright under Section 51 of the Copyright Act.

Under the act, a culprit is punishable with a sentence of not less than six months which may extend up to three years.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report