Delhi HC summons Red Chillies Entertainment, Netflix on Sameer Wankhede's defamation suit against series – India Legal

The Delhi Excessive Court docket on Wednesday issued summons to actor Shah Rukh Khan-owned Purple Chillies Leisure and Netflix on a defamation go well with filed by IRS officer Sameer Wankhede for allegedly maligning his popularity of their sequence The Ba***ds of Bollywood.

Wankhede has sought Rs 2 crore in damages, which he needs donated to the Tata Memorial Most cancers Hospital for most cancers sufferers.

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav issued discover to defendants Purple Chillies Leisure Non-public Restricted, Netflix, X Corp (previously Twitter), Google LLC, Meta Platforms, RPSG Way of life Media Non-public Restricted and John Doe within the defamation go well with and requested them to file their replies inside seven days.

The courtroom listed the matter for additional listening to on October 30. The courtroom, which didn’t move any interim injunction order at this stage, requested the defendants to additionally file their replies on Wankhede’s software looking for to take down the alleged defamatory content material from a number of web sites. “Allow them to take directions and file a reply. I can’t move an injunction normally,” the choose mentioned.

The plea submitted that the sequence disseminates a deceptive and damaging portrayal of anti-drug enforcement companies, thereby eroding public confidence in legislation enforcement establishments.

It mentioned the sequence has been intentionally conceptualised and executed with the intent to malign Wankhede’s popularity in a colourable and prejudicial method, particularly when the case involving the officer and Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan is pending and sub judice earlier than the Bombay Excessive Court docket and the Narcotic Medication and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Particular Court docket in Mumbai.

Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi and lawyer T Singhdev, who represented Wankhede, mentioned they’ve filed the amended plaint and urged the courtroom to move an interim injunction order.

The legal professionals added that in reference to the net sequence, “there are posts trolling me (Wankhede), my spouse and sister that are ex facie defamatory. It’s stunning. They (defendants) are absolutely not defending these posts”.

The choose, nonetheless, mentioned, “We recognize that there’s a trigger in your favour to strategy this courtroom however there’s a course of to be adopted.”

The go well with was opposed by the counsel for Netflix. The plea claimed that the sequence depicts a personality making an obscene gesture — particularly, exhibiting a center finger — after the character recites the slogan Satyamev Jayate, which is a part of the Nationwide Emblem.

This act constitutes a grave and delicate violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Insults to Nationwide Honour Act, 1971, which attracts penal penalties underneath legislation, it mentioned.

The plea mentioned the content material of the sequence is in contravention of varied provisions of the Data Know-how Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, because it seeks to outrage nationwide sentiment by using obscene and offensive materials.

—PTI