"Seeks Publicity": Calcutta High Court Dismisses PIL Against Talk Show 'Koffee With Karan' Over Alleged Racism & Obscenity

The petitioner had sought institution of criminal proceedings in the matter. However, the division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, referring to the nature of the controversy in the matter said:

"The petitioner has not stated anywhere in the writ petition that she had watched the talk show in question. We find that the object of filing the present public interest petition is to gain the publicity."

The plea was based upon some newspaper reports.

The petitioner contended that the show was earlier aired on television network, however, it was purportedly shifted to over-the-top (OTT) platform because the latter was allegedly not censored or regulated by the Government of India.

The respondents, including the host of the show, Karan Johar and Dharmatic Entertainment, on the other hand, argued that the petition was not maintainable, since a 'Grievance Redressal Mechanism' was already available for such matters as per the provisions of the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

The respondents also argued that a petition bearing similar controversy was filed by the same petitioner, where she had questioned the exhibition of the film "Laal Singh Chaddha", which petition was rejected by the Calcutta High Court by placing reliance on the Supreme Court decision in Indibily Creative Private Limited and Others v. Government of West Bengal and Others.

The High Court, while dismissing the petition, noted that the petitioner had not availed the grievance redressal remedy provided under the Rules of 2021. Moreover, the petitioner had referred to the talk show between 2004 and 2019 whereas, the writ petition was filed only in 2022.

"In the present case, there is nothing on record to ascertain the correctness of the contents especially when the petitioner herself had not watched the show. In the writ petition, though, several instances have been mentioned but it has not been disclosed as to in which episode or on what date such comments were made. The allegations are not supported by cogent materials and from the pleadings in the writ petition, it is also not reflected that any such comment was made in any episode in recent past."

Advocate on record Ranjit Basu and Shebatee Datta appeared for private respondents along with Counsels Sakya Sen and Rajarshi Dutta, briefed by DSK Legal team comprising Anand Desai (Managing Partner), Chandrima Mitra (Partner), Parag Khandhar (Partner) and Pranita Saboo (Senior Associate).

Case Title: Nazia Elahi Khan v. State of West Bengal and Others

Citation: WPA (P) 457 of 2022

Coram: Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Cal) 361  

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