By News18

Copyright news18

New Delhi, Sep 26 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Friday grilled IRS officer and former NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede over the maintainability of his defamation suit against actor Shahrukh Khan and his wife Gauri Khan owned Red Chillies Entertainment and Netflix for allegedly maligning his reputation in their series ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’.
Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav asked Wankhede’s lawyer as to how the plea was maintainable in Delhi.
“Your plaint is not maintainable here in Delhi. I am rejecting your plaint. Had your case been that you have been defamed at various places including at Delhi and the maximum damage has occurred in Delhi, we would have still considered the matter here in Delhi,” the court said.
Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, representing Wankhede, said the web series is aired across cities, including Delhi, and the officer has been defamed.
“So far as the web series is meant for Delhi, it is seen by viewers in Delhi and I am defamed here,” he said.
Sethi then assured to amend the plaint.
The court granted him time to file an amended application after which it would hear the matter.
“Having considered the provisions of section 9 of CPC and also the facts that the plaintiff in… has not properly made the averments as to how the civil suit would lie here in Delhi, Sethi prays for time to make necessary amendments. Let the matter be listed thereafter,” the court said.
The court did not give the next date of hearing and said it would be listed by the registry once the application was filed.
Wankhede’s plea has sought permanent and mandatory injunction, declaration and damages against Red Chillies Entertainment Private Limited, Netflix and others, for what he alleges was “false, malicious and defamatory video” of the production house and broadcast by Netflix as part of their television series.
While Red Chillies and Netflix were represented through senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi respectively.
Wankhede sought Rs 2 crore in damages which he wants to be donated to the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital for cancer patients.
“This series disseminates a misleading and negative portrayal of anti-drug enforcement agencies, thereby eroding public confidence in law enforcement institutions,” the plea said.
The plea said the series has been deliberately conceptualised and executed with the intent to malign Wankhede’s reputation in a colourable and prejudicial manner, especially when the case involving the officer and Shahrukh Khan’s son Aryan khan is pending and sub-judice before the Bombay High Court and the NDPS Special Court in Mumbai.
It claimed that the series depicts a character making an obscene gesture—specifically, showing a middle finger after the character recites the slogan “Satyamev Jayate” which is the part of the National Emblem.
This act constitutes a grave and sensitive violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which attracts penal consequences under law, it said.
The plea said the content of the series is in contravention of various provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), as it seeks to outrage national sentiment through the use of obscene and offensive material.
The suit has named as defendants — Red Chillies Entertainment Private Limited, Netflix, X Corp (formerly Twitter), Google LLC, Meta Platforms, RPG Lifestyle Media Private Limited and “John Doe”. PTI SKV SKV AMK AMK