On Friday, the Delhi High Court raised serious questions about whether a defamation suit filed by Sameer Wankhede, the former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), against Red Chillies Entertainment Pvt Ltd., the production company owned by Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan, and the streaming giant Netflix could go forward.
Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav asked Wankhede’s lawyer about the jurisdiction, saying, “Why file a suit in Delhi?” The court told Wankhede to change his plea to address the jurisdictional issues since it said the plaint was not valid in its existing form. The court’s registry was told to only add the case on the list after the new application is filed.
Wankhede is suing the web series “The Ba***ds of Bollywood,” helmed by Aryan Khan, because he says it has “false, malicious, and defamatory” things in it about him.
Main Claims in the Lawsuit:
Defamation and Intent to harm: The plea says that the show was “deliberately conceptualized and executed with the intent to malign Sameer Wankhede’s reputation,” especially while he is in the middle of legal procedures with Aryan Khan in Mumbai.
Wankhede said the series “spreads a false and negative image of anti-drug enforcement agencies, which undermines public trust in law enforcement institutions.”
The lawsuit says that a character makes an obscene gesture (showing a middle finger) after saying the slogan “Satyamev Jayate,” which the lawsuit says is a “grave and sensitive violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.”
Damages Wankhede wants: Wankhede wants Rs 2 crore in damages, which he proposes to give to the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital. He also wants a court order to stop the show’s streaming and distribution.
Wankhede’s lawyer said that the officer has been defamed in Delhi because the online series is aired all over India, including in Delhi. The court, on the other hand, found that the current pleadings were not enough to show how the cause of action mostly happened in Delhi, therefore it ordered an amendment.