Hindi movie ‘Haq’, said to be based on the life of late Shah Bano Begum of Indore, is all set to be released on schedule on Friday, 7 November, as the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday quashed a petition filed by Shah Bano’s daughter seeking a ban on the movie on the allegations that the movie makers did not take the family’s consent and also twisted some parts against the real-life facts.
The High Court’s Indore Bench, presided by Justice Pranay Verma, ruled in favour of the movie producers and against Shah Bano’s daughter, Siddiq Begum Khan. ”The petitioner (Bano’s daughter) has failed to make out any case for interfering in the matter. Consequently, the petition is found to be devoid of any merits and is hereby dismissed,” Justice Pranay Verma noted in his order.
The movie ‘Haq’, starring Yami Gautam Dhar and Emraan Hashmi in lead roles, is said to be inspired by the life and legal struggle of Shah Bano Begum, whose landmark case in 1985 led the Supreme Court to grant divorced Muslim women the right to maintenance.
Shah Bano’s daughter, Siddiq Begum Khan, had recently approached the MP High Court claiming that the film ‘Haq’ was made without the family’s consent and misrepresented personal aspects of her late mother’s life.
In 1978, Shah Bano had moved a local court seeking maintenance from her lawyer husband, Mohammad Ahmad Khan, after he divorced her.
The Supreme Court had ruled in favour of Shah Bano in 1985. She died in 1992.