A civil court in Madurai has ordered a notice to superstar Rajnikanth, the director and producer of his latest film Lingaa on a petition by debutant director K R Ravi Rathinam alleging plagiarism of his work by them.

Ravi Rathinam has moved the civil court after the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court last month rejected his petition on the matter and directed him to approach the civil court within four weeks.

The petitioner has alleged that the storyline of Lingaa was the same as that of his 2013 movie Mullai Vanam 999. Justifying his claim, he said the entire story was uploaded onto YouTube on February 24, 2013, a contention rejected by the Lingaa team.

When the petition came up for hearing, the city civil court ordered notice to Rajnikanth, Director K S Ravikumar and producer Rockline Venkatesh and posted the matter to March 16 for further hearing.

A single judge of the high court had dismissed Ravi Rathinam's petition, observing that the merits of the claims made by both the parties cannot be investigated in the High Court and the appropriate remedy for the petitioner is to file a civil suit before a competent forum or avail other remedies available under general law or criminal law.

A division bench declined to entertain an appeal by the filmmaker against the single judge order and said the claim has to be settled in a civil court.