Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said the case was registered on the directions of the court.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar today said the central government did not get any case registered against the 49 celebrities, who had written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising concern over the growing incidents of mob killing.

He said the case was registered on the directions of the court.

In a letter dated July 23, about 49 celebrities from different fields including singer Shubha Mudgal, actor Konkona Sen Sharma and filmmakers Shyam Benegal, Anurag Kashyap and Mani Ratnam, wrote an open letter to PM Modi. It had said that the killing of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities must be stopped immediately, while stressing there was "no democracy without dissent".

"Government has not registered any case. One person approached the court and the court has directed its orders. We haven't done anything in this regard," Mr Javadekar said.

In response to the letter, the government had said that Dalits and minorities are safe in the country and that those who are "yet to recover" from the defeat in the Lok Sabha polls are trying to communalise "criminal incidents".

On July 27, a criminal complaint was filed in a court in Bihar against the celebrities who wrote the open letter. A Bihar-based lawyer Sudhir Ojha filed the case in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Sury Kant Tiwari against nine people.

According to the complainant, the case was filed under Sections 124a (sedition), 153B (assertions prejudicial to national integration), 290 (public nuisance), 297 (trespass to wound religious feelings), 504 (intentional insults) of the India Penal Code (IPC).

In his complaint, Mr Ojha had alleged that the letter is a threat to national integrity and intends to malign India's image abroad.

Meanwhile, award-winning filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan on Friday urged the Centre to enact a new law to stop incidents of mob killings stating that any "responsible government" would have taken action on the issue.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) President MK Stalin today demanded that the case should be dropped. "I demand that the case against 49 intellectuals who wrote to Prime Minister on mob lynching should be dropped," Mr Stalin said.