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The Delhi High Court by a recent order has restrained Netflix, Channel News Asia and others from streaming, broadcasting, telecasting etc. the documentary titled “A big Little Murder” or any of its abridged versions which is based on the October 9, 2017  unfortunate tragic death of a seven year old student in the washroom of Ryan International School in Gurugram.

The order was passed by the single judge bench of Justice Jayant Nath on an application of Xavier Education Trust under Order 39 Rules 1 and 2 CPC seeking an ex parte injunction “ to restrain the defendants, their servants, agents etc. from marketing, broadcasting, streaming, telecasting and making available in any form or in any medium for sale, publishing, distributing etc. the documentary titled “A Big Little Murder” and / or its trailers or abridged versions and to take down the same from the website and social media platforms”

The petitioner Trust submitted that the School was a prestigious school having four decade of experience in providing quality education. It was submitted that the petitioner on Augist 5, 2021 had come across information on the internet pertaining to the streaming of the documentary  film. The said documentary is available on various websites since August 2021.

The documentary pertains to an unfortunate tragic death of a seven year old student in the school washroom on 08.09.2017. The petitioner submitted  that currently the matter is sub judice pending before the Additional Sessions Judge, Gurugram.

 The grievance of the petitioner is that the name of the  school has been used elaborately and frequently in the documentary of the defendants without having obtained permission from the petitioner. “It is stated that this is in contravention and in violation of the order dated 08.01.2018 of the court of ld. ASJ, Gurugram. Further, the case of the plaintiff is that the documentary contains visuals of the school building without having obtained permission from the plaintiff. The said act is also in violation of the order of the Ld. ASJ, Gurugram dated 08.01.2018. Reliance is also placed on an order of the co-ordinate bench of this court being “St. Xavier’s Education Trust Vs. Leena Dhankar & Ors.” dated 22.01.2021.”

Having perused the material on record the Court said “In my opinion, the impugned act is contrary to the orders passed by the Ld. ASJ, Gurugram and the co-ordinate bench of this court. Plaintiff has made out a prima facie case.  The defendants are restrained from streaming, broadcasting, telecasting etc. the documentary titled “A big Little Murder” or any of its abridged versions.

The Court however clarified  that the defendants may stream the said documentary after deleting all references to the petitioner school in question and deleting the portion where the building of the school is depicted.

Case title: Title: Xavier S Education Trust V. Mayurica Biswas & Ors.