The Delhi high court has refused to entertain IRS officer Sameer Wankhede’s defamation suit against Aryan Khan’s Netflix series, The Ba***ds Of Bollywood, produced by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, citing lack of territorial jurisdiction.
Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said on January 29 that since both, the plaintiff and the defendants, are residents of Bombay, and the alleged wrong, “as per the plaintiff’s own plaint”, also occurred there, only Bombay courts have the jurisdiction to hear the present suit.
Wankhede alleged in his suit that the web series was conceptualised to target and malign him, and that the defamatory content was created to seek revenge for the arrest of Aryan Khan in a narcotics case in 2021. Wankhede was the Narcotics Control Bureau’s zonal head in Bombay then, and he had arrested Aryan and others following a raid on a cruise. Wankhede has sued Red Chillies and Netflix for defamation and sought an order of injunction as well as Rs. 2 crore in damages.
As per the law suit, the series depicts a character making an obscene gesture — showing the middle finger — after saying “Satyamev Jayate”, a slogan which is part of the National Emblem. The suit adds that this act constitutes a grave violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which attracts penal consequences.
Red Chillies and Netflix opposed the suit, saying that it should be filed in Bombay instead of Delhi. Netflix also contended that the show was a satire and dark comedy on Bollywood culture, and that the officer should not be “oversensitive” about a one-and-a-half-minute scene.
Red Chillies told the court that the series had undertones of satirical elements and parody. It argued that satire was permitted in law as a legitimate form of artistic expression and social commentary.
