Sameer Wankhede vs Aryan Khan Netflix show ‘The Bads of Bollywood’: Delhi HC says suit ‘not maintainable’, seeks fixes
No relief for Sameer Wankhede from Delhi High Court today in defamation case against Aryan Khan's Netflix show 'The Bads of Bollywood'.
The Delhi High Court on Friday questioned the maintainability of IRS officer Sameer Wankhede's defamation case against Aryan Khan’s Netflix series, The Bads of Bollywood, Bar and Bench reported.
The Delhi High Court expressed a prima facie view that the suit was not maintainable in its current form and gave Wankhede time to amend the petition to address the identified deficiencies.
Wankhede, in his plea, had sought permanent and mandatory injunction, declaration and damages against Red Chillies Entertainment Private Limited, Netflix and others, for what he alleges is "false, malicious and defamatory video" of the production house and broadcast by Netflix as part of their television series.
Wankhede has also sought ₹2 crore in damages, which he wants to 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," Advocate Aditya Giri, one of the lawyers representing the IRS officer, claimed, as per news agency PTI.
The plea claimed 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 Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan 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.
With PTI inputs