Previously, Mehul Choksi’s plea had been rejected by the single magistracy of Judge Naveen Chawla.
New Delhi:
The Delhi High Court adjourned Tuesday to October 13 the hearing on a petition filed by businessman and diamond dealer Mehul Choksi, who is accused in the PNB scam, against the Netflix documentary “Bad Boy Billionaires” .
A division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan, hearing Mehul Choksi’s petition against a single-judge bench order dismissing his earlier plea requesting the documentary to be pre-screened, postponed the case to October 13.
At the last hearing, Mehul Choksi’s lawyer Vijay Aggarwal asked whether Netflix was allowed to violate an individual’s basic rights. Vijay Aggarwal also asked whether Netflix’s claim that it is unregulated and outside the jurisdiction of the courts in India is legal.
Appearing for Mehul Choksi, lawyers Vijay Aggarwal, Mudit Jain and Anshul Agarwal argued that it is a travesty of justice that a person has approached the court for the protection of his fundamental rights to a fair investigation, which is one facet of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, however, he was relegated to avail himself of his remedies in the civil court.
Senior attorneys Neeraj Kishan Kaul and Dayan Krishnan, appearing for Netflix, argued that the appellant was not entitled to any compensation as he is not a citizen of India, as he gave up his citizenship and therefore did not right to the protection of all fundamental rights.
Previously, Mehul Choksi’s plea had been rejected by the single magistrate of Judge Naveen Chawla, who observed that there were no regulations to control content on the over-the-top media service (OTT), and asked it to go to the appropriate forum or file. civil action in the matter.
The documentary, which is said to be based on the rise and fall of India’s most infamous billionaires, including Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, other business tycoons accused of several alleged scams, was due for release on September 2.
However, publication of the documentary was suspended by a court in Hyderabad. A Bihar court had also prevented Netflix from using the name of Sahara group president Subrata Roy in its documentary – “Bad Boy Billionaires”.
In his plea before the bench of single judge, Mehul Choksi had requested a pre-screening of the documentary and instructions to the central government to take action to regulate Netflix Inc and Netflix Entertainment Service India LLP as the publication of Content with the potential to injure effect on ongoing investigations and trials is concerned.
