Delhi High Court orders Mehul Choksi to deposit ₹2 lakh before it deals with his plea to pre-screen Netflix's Bad Boy Billionaires

The Delhi High Court recently ordered fugitive businessman and Punjab National Bank scam (PNB scam) accused Mehul Choksi to deposit ₹2 lakh as condition to proceed with the hearing of his appeal to pre-screen Netflix docu-series ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’..A Division Bench of Justices Vibhu Bakhru and Amit Mahajan passed the order observing that Choksi is neither a citizen of India nor a resident and several proceedings against him are pending against him which includes proceedings for payment of dues."This Court is of the view that, in the event, the appellant does not prevail in the present appeal and costs are awarded to the respondent, there perhaps would be no method of recovering the same. This Court considers it apposite to direct, before this proceedings are taken, the appellant to deposit a sum of ₹2,00,000/- within a period of one week from today with the registry of this Court to secure the costs of the present proceeding,” the Bench said.The case will now be considered on August 4..The Court was dealing with an appeal preferred by Choksi against the single-judge’s order dismissing his plea seeking a preview of the series, apprehending that it would infringe his right to fair investigation and trial.The single-judge had rejected his petition holding that it was not maintainable because he had an alternate remedy to approach the civil court.Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are accused in the ₹13,500 crore PNB fraud case. He left India in 2019 and is now a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda. The Netflix series was released in October 2020. The docu-series has three episodes. Episode 2 deals with the allegations against Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi..[Bad Boy Billionaires] Is your conduct consistent with your desire?: Delhi HC asks Mehul Choksi.Advocates Vijay Aggarwal, Naman Joshi, Hardik Sharma, Mukul Malik, Pankush Goyal and Shekhar Pathak appeared for Mehul Choksi. The Central government was represented through its standing counsel, Ajay Digpaul as well as advocates Kamal Digpaul and Swati Kwatra. Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul with advocates Thomas George, Savni Endlaw, Tanvi Sinha, Devvrat Joshi, Navankor Pathak and Namisha represented Netflix. .[Read Order]