As per his plea, unknown persons have circulated posts and deepfake content falsely portraying him as personally responsible for the E20 fuel programme.
The High Court took suo motu cognisance of the matter in the morning, flagged criminal antecedents of Mhatre and stayed the bail granted to him by a magistrate court.
A division bench of Justices Urmila Joshi‑Phalke and Nivedita Mehta held that the CWC itself does not get any power to deal with the child who is neither ‘abandoned’ nor ‘orphan’.
A division bench of Justices BP Colabawalla and Firdosh P Pooniwalla held that the bank’s order lacked reasons and breached the Reserve Bank of India’s 2024 Fraud Master Directions.
The judge questioned the urgency of the plea and said she would be inclined to pass orders only after granting opportunity to JioStar to file its reply.
The Court also emphasised that online intermediaries or social media platforms cannot claim to be mere passive conduits when confronted with such offending content.
The Court observed that citizens cannot blame civic authorities alone for flooding when they continue to encroach upon public land, drains and footpaths.
Phantom has alleged that Jiostar's upcoming film ‘Queen Forever’ is an unauthorised sequel to ‘Queen’ and hence, breaches the co‑production and shared IP rights between Phantom and Jiostar.