Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday dismissed a contempt petition filed by Dnyandev Wankhede, father of IRS officer Sameer Wankhede, against Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction) MLA Nawab Malik. The petition alleged that Malik had violated an assurance given to the court by making defamatory remarks against the Wankhede family.
A bench of Justices MS Sonak and Jitendra Jain, however, noted that the social media posts cited in the contempt plea did not constitute a breach of Malik’s earlier undertaking, which was limited to the duration of a defamation suit. Moreover, the suit has since been dismissed due to non-removal of office objections.
Dnyandev Wankhede had filed a defamation suit seeking restrain in Malik from making defamatory statements against him and his family.
Malik had then offered an unconditional apology for his remarks, which the court accepted on December 7, 2021. At that time, the court had permitted him to make statements pertaining only to official misconduct of government officers.
Dnyandev Wankhede the contempt plea in 2022 claiming that despite giving an undertaking to the court in December 2021 to refrain from making defamatory statements, Malik continued to do so through public comments and social media posts, including on December 28, 2021, and January 2 and 3, 2023.
On Friday, Malik’s counsel pointed out that the original defamation suit filed by Wankhede had already been dismissed due to procedural lapses. Therefore, in the absence of a subsisting suit, the question of contempt did not arise.
Wankhede’s advocate Sana Raees Khan contested this. The court accepted Malik’s argument and held that no contempt could be made out.
Dismissing the plea, the bench observed that it was open to Wankhede to pursue any other remedies available under the law, including seeking restoration of the original suit.
