HC seeks response from Salman Khan on Kamal Khan’s plea against order restraining him from commenting on actor – Times of India

NS Bombay High Court notice has been issued to Bollywood actor Salman Khan, sought his reply on the self-proclaimed film critic Kamal R KhanA petition seeking quashing of a lower court’s interim order barring the actor from making any comment on his films or his companies. Kamal Khan in his petition said that a film viewer cannot be barred from making comments about a film or its characters.

He further said that the trial court should not have passed such a comprehensive order, and while the court can restrain him from making personal remarks against Salman Khan, it cannot bar fair criticism of Salman Khan’s films.

On Thursday, a single bench headed by Justice AS Gadkari issued notices to Salman Khan, his production company Salman Khan Ventures and several social media middlemen seeking their response on Kamal Khan’s plea.

Kamal Khan has challenged the interim order of a Mumbai court issued in June this year on a defamation suit filed by Salman Khan against his comments on the film “Radhe” and some of his other videos and commentaries.

At that time, the court barred Kamal Khan from posting or publishing any defamatory material about Salman Khan, his business ventures and/or films, his family members, till final orders in the defamation case.

However, in his appeal in the HC filed through advocate Manoj Gadkari, Kamal Khan claimed that the trial court’s interim order is nothing short of a “gag order”.

He said that he is a film critic and had heavily criticized the film “Radhe” in which Salman Khan, “who is 55 years old, was acting like a teenager”.

The petitioner also claimed that the trial court’s injunction was violating his fundamental right to practice his trade – that of a film critic, and thus, preventing him from earning his rightful livelihood.

He said in his appeal that he had not posted any comments or videos and tweets intended to defame Salman Khan or his films.

“The trial court should not have failed to note that the viewer of a film cannot be prevented from making any comment on the film or the characters of the film, or whether the actors in the film are a hit or a flop,” he said. in his petition.

He also claimed in his appeal that the trial court had made a “gross error” in passing the injunction order, and that such an order was “illegal”.

Lawyers for Salman Khan and some of the other defendants told the high court that they received copies of Kamal Khan’s appeal late on Wednesday night and sought time to seek directions from their clients.

The HC will hear the petition further after two weeks.