NEW DELHI: Refusing to stay tomorrow's nationwide release of Nishabd, the Delhi High Court today issued notice to producer Ram Gopal Varma, his company RGV Films and the censor board, on a revision petition by Jahar Kanungo alleging Varma’s Film Factory had violated its intellectual property right to the title.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice MK Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Khanna fixed 9 April for hearing the case, which was filed challenging the order of Justice AK Sikri earlier this week rejecting the petition by Kanungo Media as time-barred, since the film Nishabd, which stars megastar Amitabh Bachchan with newcomer Jiah Khan, was cleared by the censors in June 2005.

The film has already been to several international film festivals and has received the best feature film award at Osian's Cinefan Festival Asian Film in Delhi and the 'Coup De Coeur Guimet Award' at Vesoul International Festival of Asian Award.

Filmmaker Jahar Kanungo claims that he retains the copyright to the title Nishabd and had produced a Bengali film with this title ten years ago.

Nishabd, directed by Varma, tells the story of a 65-year-old man, infatuated with a girl his daughter's age. The film also stars south Indian actress Rewati.