Mumbai court denies interim relief to Salman Khan in defamation suit on land transaction

The Mumbai City Civil Court on Wednesday refused interim relief to Bollywood actor Salman Khan in his defamation suit filed against Ketan Kakkad and others for allegedly making derogatory remarks against him and his family over a land sale transaction..Khan's application for interim relief sought for blocking/suspending/withdrawing the social media accounts of the defendants where the derogatory content was shared.Additional Sessions Judge Anil H Laddhad pronounced the verdict today, stating that the reasons for rejection will follow in the order yet to be published. .Advocate Pradeep Gandhy, appearing for Khan, stated that the defendants had made false, disparaging and defamatory allegations in videos, posts and tweets causing harm and loss to Khan, his family members and his business ventures.He pointed out that Kakkad had attempted to purchase a plot of land beside Khan’s farmhouse in Panvel. However, that transaction was cancelled by the authorities on the ground that it was illegal.Kakkad then allegedly started raising false and baseless accusations that the transaction had been cancelled at the behest of Khan and his family members..Advocate Abha Singh, appearing for Kakkad, opposed the relief, arguing that her client's statements revolved around facts about Khan's property that could not amount to defamation. It was brought to the Court's attention that Khan, being a celebrity, had put everything about himself including about his Panvel farmhouse on the public domain. The crux of her argument was that Khan had not come with clean hands and this was a land matter under the garb of a defamation suit. Singh alleged that Khan's counsel had approached Kakkad offering him money to give up the Panvel land and the present suit was filed after Kakkad had refused the offer..Along with Kakkad, the suit also arrayed other individuals, social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube, along with their Indian counterparts.Counsel appearing for the other platforms opposed the relief. They stated that they had no control over what was posted by users on their platforms. It was also pointed out that scanning all content on their websites to remove the defamatory content against Khan was unreasonable and meaningless. .Khan was represented by a team from DSK Legal comprising Managing Partner Anand Desai and Partners Chandrima Mitra and Parag Khandhar, along with Principal Associate Prachi Garg.[Read Order].Salman Khan files defamation suit against NRI who blamed Khan for unsuccessful land transaction