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Recently, the Bombay High Court continued the stay on the summons issued by a Mumbai Court in a criminal defamation complaint against the producers of the film Gangubai Kathiawadi, actress Alia Bhatt and authors S Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges who authored the book on which the film is based.

Single judge bench of Justice SK Shinde however remarked that Shah had failed to show proof as to how he was the adopted son of the deceased woman.

Previously, in a criminal defamation complaint filed against authors of the novel 'The Mafia Queens of Mumbai' on which the film “Gangubai Kathiawadi” is based, the Bombay High Court had stayed the summons issued by a Magistrate Court.

The producers – Bhansali Production Private Limited and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Bhatt, and the authors had challenged the complaint before the Bombay High Court and earlier in August, the Court had stayed the proceedings before the subordinate court/lower court till further orders from the court.

The counsel for the producers, advocate Aabad Ponda, submitted that they had no knowledge about Shah’s existence. And pointed out that the Mumbai City Civil Court had dismissed Shah’s suit seeking a permanent injunction against the authors from publishing, selling or creating third-party rights on their novel.

It was further submitted that the conditions required for constituting the offence of defamation were not made out in the particular case.

On the other side, Shah’s advocate, Narendra Dubey, had submitted that the adoption (of Shah by Kathiawadi) issue was resolved in another proceeding before the city civil court.

While staying the proceedings of the lower court, the judge said that this issue (of adoption) needs to be addressed since the right to raise grievances against defamation is limited to family members or close relatives, hence it was important for Shah to prove he was one of them.