Top Court denies Kamaal R Khan's plea to transfer defamation case filed by Manoj Bajpayee from Indore to Mumbai
The Court was told on Bajpayee's behalf that Khan had approached the Top Court with malafide intentions as information and facts regarding pending and decided cases arising from the defamation complaint and their outcomes had not been disclosed thus, both wasting the time of the Court and causing grave harassment and grievances to the complainant-actor.
The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed the petition filed by Kamaal R Khan (KRK) seeking to transfer the defamation case filed against him by Actor Manoj Bajpai, from Indore to Mumbai.
A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and Dipankar Datta observed that jurisdiction was not a ground for transfer of case. Court also considered Khan' conduct as highlighted in the reply filed by Bajpayee and opined that this was not a case for transfer.
On the argument that both Bajpayee and Khan are residents of Mumbai, the bench observed on a lighter note that if the complainant had no issues in traveling to Indore, Khan should also have no such problems.
In March this year, the Indore district court had issued an arrest warrant against KRK for not remaining present for the defamation case filed against him for posting tweets in 2021, allegedly calling Bajpayee a drug addict.
Before the Supreme Court, Bajpayee in his reply stated that the tweets were derogatory in nature and caused severe harm to his image as he is an internationally acclaimed actor and has a huge fan base whose opinion stood altered because of the derogatory and defamatory tweets posted by KRK.
"The Respondent got himself medically examined at a private lab in order to prove his innocence and safeguard his fan base and the statements made by the Petitioner were found to be blatantly false by the said tests", Bajpayee stated in his reply before the Top Court.
Bajpayee submitted before Court that when he visited his friends and relatives in Indore in August 2021, he realized that enough damage had already been done to his image as because of the derogatory tweets and comments by KRK, and people in the city had formed a particular opinion about his character.
Court was further told that the transfer petition did not reveal any cogent reason that warranted its admission as the contention regarding the issue of jurisdiction was already decided by the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Indore in July, 2022 in criminal complaint filed by Bajpayee whereby it was categorically, held that because the “tweet in question” was read at Indore by Bajpayee's friends and created an evil impression, the tweet was defamatory in nature and because it was read at Indore, it was in the nature of being a published tweet, the case against KRK was held maintainable at Indore.
"...the Hon’ble High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Indore while deciding the Section 482 Petition filed by the Petitioner whereby cognizance taken by the Ld. Trial Court u/s 204 of Cr.P.C was upheld and the Hon’ble High Court refused to interfere by invoking the inherent powers under section 482 of Cr.P.C and therefore, the issue of jurisdiction was put at rest...", the bench was informed.
Bajpayee was represented by Advocate Mayank Kshirsagar.
Case Title: Kamaal Rashid Khan vs. Manoj Bajpayee