SC tells company with Rajini's wife as director to pay firm

The Supreme Court on Tuesday told a company with actor Rajinikanth's wife Latha as director to pay Rs 6.2 crore within three months to a company involved in post-production of Tamil movie 'Kochadaiiyaan'.

"Within the period of three months if the company, Mediaone Global Entertainment Limited, does not pay the balance dues, the respondent-accused (Latha) has undertaken before the court to pay the due amount," a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi said in the order.

Senior advocate Nalini Chidambaram, representing Latha, contended that she did not take a single rupee and merely stood as guarantor.

The court, however, referred to the documents to point out that she was stated to be director of the company.

"So you are responsible as a director of the private limited company to pay the amount," the bench said.

The court put the special leave petition filed by Ad-Bureau Advertising Pvt Ltd for consideration on July 3.

The company challenged the Karnataka High Court order of March 10, 2016, that had quashed an FIR lodged against her by the Bengaluru police. Latha was accused of producing forged documents before a court.

The FIR was registered at the Ulsoor police station in September, 2015 after the complainant had alleged that his firm did post-production work worth Rs 14.9 crore for 'Kochadaiiyaan'.

The petitioner claimed the superstar's wife had signed a contract and guaranteed payment of the money. After the release of the movie, the producer paid Rs 8.7 crore, but the remaining Rs 6.2 crore was not paid, it claimed.