Salman Khan defamation case: Retiring HC justice says ‘unable to complete the final judgement’

Justice Bhadang clarified that the matter will be kept ‘part-heard’ and will come up before another judge after the Diwali vacation of the court ends on November 8

Mumbai: A day before his retirement, Bombay high court justice Chandrakant V Bhadang, said he was unable to complete the final judgement in an appeal by actor Salman Khan in connection with a defamation suit filed against his Panvel farmhouse neighbour NRI Ketan Kakkad.

Bollywood actor Salman Khan poses for pictures during a press conference for the upcoming 16th season of the Hindi-language reality show 'Bigg Boss' in Mumbai on September 27, 2022. (Photo by SUJIT JAISWAL / AFP) (AFP)

Justice Bhadang clarified that the matter will be kept ‘part-heard’ and will come up before another judge after the Diwali vacation of the court ends on November 8.

The court concluded the hearing of the appeal on October 11 wherein Khan had sought a restraining order on Kakkad for spreading wrong information about Khan and his farmhouse which is adjoining the plot owned by Kakkad.

The single judge bench of justice CV Bhadang which heard the appeal filed by Khan was expected to pronounce judgement on Thursday but when he took the dais, he said, “I am unable to complete the judgement. I tried my level best till last evening. But unfortunately, there was vacation and then administrative work, and I had other assignments. I will have to list this as part-heard.”

Admitting to the fact that both the parties spent a substantial amount of time in arguing their respective sides and were looking forward to the judgement, justice Bhadang said, “I would have loved to decide this case either way. Unfortunately, this came at the fag end of my career. I will list this as part heard and then this will come up for hearing post vacation.”

Khan had filed an appeal against a city civil court’s order of March, this year, wherein his plea for restraining Kakkad from spreading malicious content against him on social media while the hearing of the defamation suit was pending was rejected. The defamation suit was filed against Kakkad and others, for uploading videos on various social media platforms about the actor’s alleged activities in his Panvel farmhouse.

The lower court, while rejecting Khan’s application, had held in its 50-page reasoned order that there was documentary evidence which proved the claims made against Khan relating to illegal encroachment and violation of the Forest Act.

Senior advocate Ravi Kadam for Khan had however refuted the claims before justice Bhadang and stated that the videos were aimed at creating communal hatred against Khan. The participants in the videos which included Kakkad had levelled uncorroborated allegations against Khan and hence the HC should impose an injunction against uploading videos and spreading false information.

However, advocate Aditya Pratap for Kakkad had argued that the lower court had rightly noted that there were violations against the Forest Act at Khan’s farmhouse and his clients had simply stated the same facts in the videos, hence no relief should be granted to Khan.