Uphaar Tragedy: Sushil Ansal moves Delhi High Court to stay release of Netflix series 'Trial By Fire'

Sushil Ansal has approached the Delhi High Court to stay the release of 'Trial By Fire', a Netflix series based on the 1997 Uphaar Cinema tragedy that killed nearly 60 people. .Ansal's suit is listed for hearing before Justice Yashwant Varma on Wednesday. The show is set to stream on Netflix on January 13 and is based on a 2016 book titled 'Trial by Fire: The Tragic Tale of the Uphaar Fire Tragedy' written by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy.The series has been produced by House of Talkies along with Endemol Shine India. .In his suit, filed through advocates Gautam Khazanchi, Kumar Vaibhaw, Somaya Gupta and Sukanya Joshi, Ansal has said that series is defamatory and infringes on his right to privacy. The suit states that Ansal has been punished both legally and socially for his association with Uphaar Tragedy and his family has also suffered extensively. He said that he has apologised to the victims' families for the tragedy and has expressed deep remorse but he ought not to be made perpetually liable to be rebuked by the public time and again especially after having served the sentence. Ansal argued that his portrayal in the trailer and teaser of the Netflix series has the propensity to cause further immense and irreparable harm to his reputation and right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. "The Plaintiff states that the release of the impugned series will lead to further prejudice and harm to the Plaintiff and will be in grave breach of the Plaintiff’s fundamental rights, inter alia, to privacy as envisaged by the Constitution of India," he has said. .While the suit seeks a permanent injunction on the series and the book, Ansal has also sought an ex-parte interim order to stay the release of the show on Netflix.