NEW DELHI: Delhi HC has refused to entertain IRS officer Sameer Wankhede’s defamation suit against Netflix series ‘The Ba****ds of Bollywood’, produced by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, citing lack of territorial jurisdiction.Since both the plaintiff and the defendants are residents of Mumbai, and the alleged wrong, “as per the plaintiff’s own plaint”, also occurred there, only Mumbai courts have the jurisdiction to hear the present suit, Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said Thursday.HC returned the complaint directing the plaintiff to approach a “court of competent jurisdiction”.Wankhede alleged in his plea that the web series was conceptualised to target and malign him, and that the defamatory content was created to take revenge for the arrest of Shah Rukh’s son Aryan Khan in a narcotics case in 2021. Wankhede, who was then Narcotics Control Bureau’s zonal head in Mumbai, had arrested Aryan and others following a raid on a cruise ship.He has sued Red Chillies and Netflix for defamation and sought an order of injunction as well as Rs 2 crore in damages, which he said would be donated to Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital.As per the lawsuit, the series depicts a character making an obscene gesture — showing the middle finger — after saying ‘Satyamev Jayate’, a slogan that is part of the National Emblem. This act constitutes a grave violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which attracts penal consequences under law, it says.Red Chillies and Netflix opposed the suit, saying it should be filed in Mumbai 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 oneand-half-minute scene.On the content of the web series, Red Chillies said it touched upon various controversies in Bollywood film industry, such as nepotism, paparazzi culture, adultery and struggles faced by newcomers, with undertones of satirical elements and parody. It argued that ‘satire’ was permitted in law as a legitimate form of artistic expression and social commentary.
