High Court in favor of Sanjay Dutt in Shakeel Noorani's case!

An old dispute has returned to haunt actor Sanjay Dutt. Producer Shakeel Noorani dragged the actor to court over losses incurred due to the actor abandoning a film. Shakeel Noorani has claimed Rs 2.5 crore from the actor which includes Rs 50 lakh paid to him as signing amount for an under-production film 'Jaan Ki Baazi'.

Shakeel Noorani first launched "Jaan Ki Baazi" in 2002 with Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra. The producer claims that halfway through the shooting of the film, Dutt cancelled the shooting.

Noorani had to move to Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association or IMPPA for help. IMPPA asked Dutt to either commit 30 days for the shooting or refund Rs 50 lakh and pay an additional Rs 1.53 crore by way of compensation to Noorani.

But Dutt failed to follow the order, so Noorani moved to the High Court, seeking execution of the IMPPA order which provided for attachment of the actor's flat if he did not pay. In December 2010, Dutt's flats were attached. Hearing Dutt's plea against the attachment, Justice B P Colabawalla had on April 7 this year ruled that the decision of IMPPA was not an "award" under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act and thus it can not be enforced.

The court termed Noornai's execution application as "an abuse of the process of the court", revoked the attachment, and ordered the producer to pay cost of Rs 1.50 lakh to Dutt. Since IMPPA was only a private body, the "entire proceedings for the enforcement" of its award were meaningless, the High Court said.