The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said the Narcotics Control Bureau’s Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede is a public servant and therefore is bound to be scrutinised, and adjourned the defamation suit filed by his father against Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Nawab Malik to November 12.
A vacation Bench of Justice Madhav Jamdar was hearing a suit filed by Mr. Sameer Wankhede’s father Dhyandev Wankhede, seeking damages of ₹1.25 crore for defamatory statements made against Mr. Sameer Wankhede. The plea mentions the “leaking” of a purported birth certificate of Mr. Sameer Wankhede by Mr. Malik on Twitter, alleging that Mr. Sameer Wankhede was “posing” as a Muslim.
Advocate Arshad Shaikh, representing Mr. Sameer Wankhede, said Mr. Malik had alleged his client’s son had misused the caste certificate to reach the position he had as a civil servant. “The birth certificate is not on record. Before whom do I produce the certificate to raise my point? He [Mr. Malik] may be an MLA but then, he is not the court or a quasi-judicial authority,” Mr. Shaikh exclaimed.
The court said, “As a public officer, you have to show that the statements made are false. The issues can be raised by any member of the public because he is a public officer. So you first show that the statements are false because he [Mr. Malik] is saying they are true.”
Mr. Shaikh read out the tweets posted by Mr. Malik and said that he [Mr. Malik] had brought Mr. Sameer Wankhede’s sister and sister-in-law into the picture, hence the legal notice.
The Bench remarked, “You just concentrate on the fact that the statement is false. Your son is a public servant, he is bound to be scrutinised.”
Senior advocate Atul Damle, appearing for Mr. Malik, pointed out that the birth certificate of Sameer Wankhede, issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, had an asterisk, “so his name was changed”. “I have not posted something on air, I have put [out] documents, which I have,” Mr. Damle said.
The Bench asked, “Have you verified [the document] before putting it [out]? Isn’t it your duty as a public officer to verify, as a responsible citizen and a national political party? The Supreme Court is clear on this — right to privacy is in-built in the right to life, so I am not going to go into the technicalities. The court is mindful of what relief to give. He [Mr. Wankhede] is a citizen of India; he has come for damages through this suit.”
