Shilpa Shetty's Second Post After Raj Kundra's Arrest Is About Her New Film

Swati Deshpande (THE TIMES OF INDIA; July 31, 2021)

Mumbai: In some relief to Shilpa Shetty Kundra, the Bombay High Court on Friday asked a TV channel based in Uttar Pradesh to take down a video content which, it observed, “clearly portrays her as duplicitous at a personal level” and noted that two others—an “online journalist” and a host of an online entertainment channelhave themselves removed their content after the actor filed a defamation suit on Thursday. The two undertook not to upload the content back.

Justice Gautam Patel, who passed the order, clarified that “no part of this order is to be construed as a gag on media except for the two-three instances mentioned”.

“Consideration in defamation and wide protection recognized under freedom of press will have to be balanced against right of privacy. It is possible that exception to free speech will have to be exceedingly narrowly tailored, but it is not possible to fail to recognise right to privacy nor to say that because a person is a public figure of some sort that such figure has forfeited her right to privacy,” Justice Patel said. 
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Mumbai: After hearing Shilpa Shetty’s counsel Birendra Saraf and Abhinav Chandrachud, on the actor’s defamation suit, the Bombay High Court said the TV channel’s portrayal of her in a July 26 video “is transgressing some limits…and will need to be taken down”.

“I believe some of the issues this suit raise will require closer scrutiny because it is not possible to say at this stage that all statements are of the same defamatory character,” said Justice Gautam Patel, while dictating his order.

Saraf, he noted, restricted his urgent pleas to a few from the 20-odd cited. Justice Patel said, “This is not to mean I have rejected his plea with regard to others nor is it to mean that he has conceded his case with regard to others…”

Shetty’s Rs 25-crore defamation suit is against 29 parties across online print, electronic and social media — the 29th being a John Doe (unknown person)—to restrain them from posting, reposting, circulating any derogatory and false content in print or audio visual formats and to prevent any further invasion of her privacy. Her application for interim relief alleged it was to increase their viewership and prejudice in people’s minds against her and her husband Raj Kundra during the pendency of an investigation into the pornographic racket.

Saraf said one of the parties who have now taken down the content had questioned the quality of her parenting in regard to her children. It was “malicious and defamatory” and a reckless disregard to her fundamental rights as “involving her personal life and that of her children was a clear intrusion in her privacy,” he added.

The HC said, “Now, whether this is malicious with reckless disregard for the truth or made knowing to be false are matters that will have to be considered on another day.”

“None of this involves or should be allowed to involve Shetty as parent. That aspect of her life is protected by right to privacy,” it said, adding: “He has taken down the video...is not to be uploaded again.”

The HC said that the TV channel and the online entertainment channel “seem to me to be even at this ad-interim stage malicious…certainly Shetty has not been contacted for her comments”.

Justice Patel, however, passed no observations or orders over another alleged defamatory content on an online portal saying it “directly relates to the investigation” in the case.

The HC called for replies from all the defendants by August 18 and a single comprehensive rejoinder from Shetty by August 26. It will hear the matter again on September 20.
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Court adjourns pre-arrest bail plea of Raj Kundra

Mumbai: A sessions court on Friday adjourned the hearing in the anticipatory bail plea moved by UK businessman Raj Kundra in an obscenity case being investigated by the cyber crime police. The court extended the interim relief from arrest till Monday. Kundra is currently in judicial custody.

In November 2020, the police had registered an FIR against 14 OTT platforms and web portals for obscene content based on a complaint by a retired customs official. Summons were sent to the heads of these platforms and portals, besides some actors in the videos. Kundra’s name surfaced after the property cell probing the case stumbled upon the involvement of a UK production company, Kenrin, and the police arrested its executive, Umesh Kamat.