Singham actor Ajay Devgn with all his star power and mass appeal could not convince the Supreme Court to agree to let him be examined by video conferencing in an eviction suit filed by his landlord over his office space in Mumbai.
A nagging five-year-old suit pending before a Small Causes Court was enough for the Bollywood actor to panic as he felt that being a public figure will create unnecessary hurdles in recording of his testimony and conduct of proceedings before the lower court.
As a remedy, Devgan sought exemption from personal appearance and instead sought proceedings against him to be conducted via video conferencing or by constituting a Commission to record his statement.
On May 7 last year, the Small Causes Court dismissed his request and asked him to evict from the premises used as his office at 2nd Floor, Naaz Cinema Building located at Dadasaheb Bhadakamkar Marg on lamington Road, Mumbai.
He appealed the order in the Bombay High Court but to no avail. On Monday, his lawyer Kishore Jain approached the bench headed by Justice V Gopala Gowda in Supreme Court claiming that the actor’s public figure image would lead his fans to disrupt the court proceedings and even influence him while recording his evidence.
But the argument failed to evoke relief as the court was adamant to ask the actor to depose before the concerned court. The actor’s bid to finance the video conferencing or such other arrangement also failed to convince the Court.