The Madras High Court today dismissed a suit filed by a film financier against top actor Rajinikanth with a cost of Rs 25,000, saying it was nothing but an abuse of the process of law to gain cheap publicity and keep a famous person on the tenterhooks.
"If such plaints are not thrown out at the initial stage, it will give a licence to people like the plaintiff to approach the court often even to get cheap publicity," Justice N Sathish Kumar said in his order.
He directed the plaintiff, Mukunchand Bothra, to pay the cost of Rs 25,000 to the actor.
The financier had alleged that Kasturi Raja, the father-in-law of Rajinikanth's daughter, had borrowed Rs 65 lakh from him with an assurance that if the money was not repaid by him, the actor would repay it.
The financier had already filed a petition in a lower court against Raja for dishonouring the cheques issued by him.
"It is common knowledge that any litigation filed against any person who is in the limelight and a public personality will get huge attraction in the media and it will be a hot news for a few days. The plaintiff filed such a suit in order to get publicity and not for any other purpose," the judge observed.
Referring to the relief sought by the financier for a direction to Rajinikanth to take action against Raja for using his name, the judge said, "Taking action for misusing names is the choice of the person whose name has been allegedly misused.
"The court cannot compel every person to take action against somebody who allegedly misused the name, which is clearly barred under section 39 of the Specific Relief Act."