A judge of the Bombay High Court on Thursday, November 3, said it would not be possible to pronounce an order on an appeal filed by actor Salman Khan in a defamation case against his neighbour due to the paucity of time. Khan's plea will now be heard afresh by another judge. Justice CV Bhadang, who had heard the arguments in the case and reserved his order, is retiring on Friday. Khan's appeal would now be placed before another judge after the Diwali vacation and heard afresh.
Justice Bhadang had in August begun the hearing on the appeal filed by the actor against a lower court order of March 2022. The lower court had refused to restrain Ketan Kakkad, who owns land near Khan's farmhouse at Panvel, from posting derogatory video posts against the actor. It had also refused to direct Kakkad to delete his earlier YouTube videos.
On October 11, Justice Bhadang closed the matter for orders after arguments were over. "Unfortunately I am unable to complete the judgement. I tried my level best till last evening. But unfortunately there was vacation and then administrative work, and I had other assignments. I will have to list this as part heard," the HC judge said on Thursday. "I understand the apprehension of the parties and that substantial time and efforts went into this. I would have loved to decide this case either way. Unfortunately this came at the fag end of my career," he added.
The Bollywood star has filed a defamation suit against Kakkad in the lower court over videos uploaded by Kakkad on social media about Khan's activities at his farmhouse in Panvel near Mumbai.
When the civil court refused to pass any interim restraining orders against Kakkad, Khan moved the HC. The posts uploaded by Kakkad were not only defamatory but also communal and provocative in nature, his plea said. Kakkad's lawyers Abha Singh and Aditya Singh claimed that the defamation suit was filed by the actor to pressurise their client to give up his land.
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