[BREAKING] Bombay High Court refuses to restrain Nawab Malik from publishing material against Sameer Wankhede, family

The Bombay High Court on Monday refused to restrain Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik from making any statements or publishing any material in the public domain and on social media against Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede, his father and other family members..The order declining interim relief was passed by Justice Madhav Jamdar in a defamation suit filed by Wankhede’s father, Dhyandev Wankede (plaintiff).."Although plaintiff and his family members are having right to privacy under Article 21, Malik is having right to freedom of speech and expression subject to the restrictions imposed under Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India. Thus in this case, it is necessary to balance fundamental rights of the Plaintiff and that of the Defendant." the Court said. Justice Jamdar held that the allegations in the present case were against Wankhede's son, who is a public officer. He observed that the public has a right to examine and comment on the actions of public officials. However, the same was required to be done after reasonable verification of facts, the Court held..Considering that a balance between fundamental rights was required, although Justice Jamdar held that Wankhede was not entitled to a blanket injunction, prima facie it was found that Malik's actions were "actuated by malice or personal animosity"..The Court, therefore, directed Malik to publish facts or any matter which may be defamatory of Wankhede "only after carrying out reasonable verification of the facts". Malik has raised pertinent issues against Wankhede and it cannot be said that he acted with malice, the Court added..The Court had on November 12, reserved its order on the aspect of interim relief in Dhyandev Wankhede's defamation suit. Through an interim application filed in the case, Wankhede sought a temporary injunction restraining Malik from making any statements in the future about him and his family members..The suit was filed after Malik had shared Sameer Wankhede’s purported birth certificate on his Twitter handle, while allegedly imputing that Wankhede’s father was a Muslim and that his name was ‘Dawood’.In the suit, Dhyandev Wankhede claimed that the tirade against his son started only after Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan was arrested by the NCB in January this year for an offence under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act)..The suit filed through Advocates Divakar Rai and Saurabh Tamhankar sought the following prayers:Order declaring that statements made by Malik are "tortious and defamatory in nature";Order of permanent injunction restraining Malik from publishing or making statements in any kind of media, including his social media accounts;Directions to Malik to delete any statements, press releases, tweets released by Malik;Directions to pay damages to the tune of ₹1.25 crore for allegedly making defamatory comments against his son and his family in press conferences and on his social media account..In response, Malik had filed a detailed reply challenging the maintainability of the suit. He had also set out his stance in compliance with the Court's directions asking him to state on record whether he had verified the information against Wankhede before uploading the same on his social media accounts.On the Court's directions, Wankhede's father submitted a 20-page affidavit consisting of 28 documents to show that his name had always been ‘Dynandeo’ and he was from the ‘Mahar’ caste of the Hindu religion..[Read order]