Court pulls up Salman Khan’s neighbor over social media post in property dispute
Bombay High Court hears Salman Khan’s plea against his Panvel farmhouse neighbor over social media posts. The bench questioned why the complaints were not raised with the authorities and suggested removal of the post.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday, while hearing actor Salman Khan’s plea against his Panvel farmhouse neighbour, said access to social media does not give anyone the right to post derogatory material against celebrities. The court asked why such material should be uploaded on social media instead of reaching a complaint to the concerned authorities.
according to a PTI According to the report, a single-judge bench of Justice Sharmila Deshmukh also asked neighbor Ketan Kakkar to consider removing the post. The next hearing of the case has been fixed for July 6.
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Kakkar owns a property adjacent to Khan’s farmhouse in Panvel in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. He has alleged that the actor violated environmental norms during the construction of the farmhouse and blocked access to his property. Kakkar also said that he had approached the authorities on the issue, but no action was taken.
Khan later filed a defamation suit against Kakkar, saying that he had uploaded videos and other material on social media about the actor’s activities at the farmhouse. Khan said the posts were defamatory and sought directions to remove them, and also sought an order restraining Kakkar from making such comments in future. After a civil court refused to grant relief, Khan approached the High Court.
In his petition before the High Court, Khan said that the posts uploaded by Kakkar were not only derogatory but also communally provocative against him. When the case was heard on Thursday, Justice Deshmukh questioned why someone should upload such videos and content on social media instead of taking measures before the concerned authorities.
“Just because someone has access to social media, it does not mean that they can upload videos about any person, be it a common citizen or a celebrity, just to defame them. Why upload such videos on social media?” Justice Deshmukh said.
The court also asked whether judicial time should be spent merely in deciding whether a particular social media post is defamatory and therefore should be removed. It suggested that Ketan Kakkar consider removing the content. Now this case will be heard again on July 6.