Now this seems to be a copyright infringement suit, and Chetan Bhagat’s new novel seems to be in trouble. A Bengaluru Civil Court on April 19 granted a temporary injunction holding back author Chetan Bhagat from selling his book, ‘One Indian Girl’ following a city-based writer’s suit claiming that the work was a copy of one of her short stories, ‘Drawing Parallels’ from her book, ‘Life, Odds & Ends’.
Anvita Bajpai, a fellow IIM graduate and a writer as Bhagat, had filed an original suit seeking a permanent injunction restraining Bhagat and his publisher from selling his recent book and also claimed damages of INR 1 lakh (USD 1550 approx.). After hearing the advocate for Bajpai, the court passed a temporary injunction order on April 19 until the next hearing.
Let’s see what was we seem to have from Anvita’s side
“Mr. Chetan Bhagat, a celebrated writer published a fiction called ONE INDIAN GIRL in the year 2016. Mrs. Anvita Bajpai claims that during the year 2014, when Chetan Bhagat had come to Bangalore for BLF’14, she had given him a copy of her book for writing review; though he denied the notice sent by Anvita Bajpai alleging that one Indian girl published in the year 2016 is nothing but a copy of DRAWING PARALLELS and the theme of her story has been intelligently copied.”
Anvita Bajpai sent a legal notice on 22/2/2017 to Mr. Chetan Bhagat and asked him to withdraw the book titled ONE INDIAN GIRL and also to pay a sum of Rs. 5 lakhs towards damages. He sent a reply on 23/3/2017 denying all the allegations and has stoutly denied that One Indian Girl is totally a different story and not based on ideas of story DRAWING PARALLELS written by Mrs. Anvita Bajpai.
Mrs. Anvita Bajpai approached civil Court at Bangalore and has filed an Original Suit seeking permanent injunction restraining Mr. Chetan Bhagat and the publisher from selling ONE INDIAN GIRL and also sought for damages of Rs. 1 lakh. The Hon’ble Court, after hearing the advocate for Mrs. Anvita Bajpai, has granted temporary injunction till the next of hearing restraining Mr. Chetan Bhagat and the publisher from selling the Book .The injunction order came to be passed on 19th April, 2017.
Chetan Bhagat’s reaction to her story:
Hi Guys,
Just wanted to share something. Today I learnt that someone called Anvita Bajpai has filed a case in the Bangalore lower court and got a temporary injunction stating something about One Indian Girl based on her already published work.
This is deeply unfortunate. This is for one an absolute surprise for me as I have never read any of this author’s works. My stories are always original – including One Indian Girl – and it is unthinkable for me to do anything like what is suggested. Surely, alleging anything like this in the current digital age is strange.
I write universal stories about everyday issues. This could be a misunderstanding and am sure will be clarified as what is being suggested is baseless. My publisher’s legal team will be taking appropriate steps.
My readers’ trust is most valuable to me and I will never, ever compromise that.
Yours truthfully,
Chetan Bhagat
How Bhagat sums up entire issue
Bhagat denied all the allegations levelled by Anvita Bajpai and stated that he has never met her or read any of her work. The writer added on his official twitter page, “I write universal stories about everyday issues. This could be a misunderstanding and am sure will be clarified as what is being suggested is baseless. My publisher’s legal team will be taking appropriate steps.”
“Next hearing of the case would take place in June lets wait to see, what could be the next episode.”