The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to hear a Netflix petition against a Bihar lower court order restraining it from using Sahara group chief Subrata Roy’s name in its web series “Bad Boy Billionaires”.
A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, however, granted liberty to Netflix to withdraw the plea and approach the Araria court to avail appropriate remedy against the order.
“Dismissed. We are sorry,” the bench, also comprising Justices Arun Mishra, A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, said during the hearing conducted through video-conferencing.
In its order, the bench said: “Mukul Rohatgi, senior counsel appearing for the petitioner (Netflix Entertainment Services India LLP), prays for withdrawal of this petition with liberty to avail an appropriate remedy in accordance with law. Prayer is allowed.
“However, we make it clear that when the petitioner avails of such a remedy, the concerned court may deal with the matter on its own merits expeditiously. The special leave petition is dismissed as withdrawn with the liberty aforesaid”.
Rohatgi, who was appearing for Netflix, told the bench that several petitions pertaining to the web series are pending in various high courts and the apex court should transfer these matters to itself. The bench issued notice on the separate petition filed by Netflix seeking transfer of the matters pending before different high courts.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Sahara India, opposed the Netflix plea and said that the order was passed by a civil judge and an appeal would lie before the district judge and not before the high court or the apex court.
The web series, scheduled for release in India on Wednesday, is promoted by Netflix as: “This investigative docuseries explores the greed, fraud and corruption that built up — and ultimately brought down — India’s most infamous tycoons”.