Plea by Mehul Choksi in Delhi HC seeks preview of Netflix series ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ before release

Fugitive businessman and accused in the PNB Scam case, Mehul Choksi has moved the Delhi High Court against Netflix for its series titled ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ which is scheduled to be released on September 2, legal news website BarandBench.com has reported.

Appearing for Mehul Choksi on Wednesday, advocate Vijay Aggarwal argued before a Single Judge Bench of Justice Navin Chawla that since the series features Nirav Modi, who is Choksi's nephew and co-accused in the case, it may prejudice the investigation and trial against him.

"I am only making a request for preview. Show me the series before it is released. I am not seeking anything else," he said.

Aggarwal pointed out that even before the release of the movie titled "Batla House", the court had ordered for a pre-screening of the film after the accused in the Batla House encounter case filed a petition.

In his writ petition filed before the High Court, apart from seeking the preview, Choksi has sought a direction to restrain Netflix from releasing the episode/portion which would be prejudicial to his rights of fair investigation and trial, and presumption of innocence.

Appearing for Netflix, Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul challenged the maintainability of the writ petition. He asserted that OTT-platforms were not regulated by government authorities, and the only remedies before Choksi were to either make a representation in terms of Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, or file a suit.

Kaul further clarified that only 2 minutes in the entire series were on Mehul Choski. "Only two minutes are devoted to Mehul Choksi. It is on Nirav Modi...All this (what is shown in the series) is already in public domain," he said.

After briefly hearing the parties, the court asked Senior Advocate Kaul to seek instruction on organizing a pre-screening in terms of Choksi's prayers.

In his petition, Choksi has submitted that he has been falsely accused of "various crimes in India" and under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, he is entitled to the presumption of innocence, a free and fair trial and right to reputation.

It is argued that the court must intervene and protect Choksi's rights in the face of a premature or unfair portrayal in a motion picture.

The matter will be heard next on August 28.