MUMBAI: Dnyandev Wankhede, father of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede, on Wednesday filed an appeal in the Bombay high court against the rejection by the single-judge bench to restrain NCP minister Nawab Malik and others under him from putting up defamatory tweets and posts on social media.
Dnyandev’s senior counsel, Arshad Shaikh, mentioned the appeal before a ben-ch of Justices S J Kathawalla and Milind Jadhav, which posted it on Thursday for a hearing on interim relief.
On Monday, Justice Madhav Jamdar had said that Malik’s posts against the Wankhedes, which began in October, a month after his son-in-law was granted bail in a drugs case filed by NCB, were “actuated by malice or from personal animosity”, but had agreed with the NCP minister’s senior counsel, Atul Damle, that a “blanket” restraining order cannot be passed agaisnt him.
Justice Jamdar had said that a “balance” has to be struck between Wankhedes’ right to privacy and Malik’s right to free speech, both fundamental rights of citizens. But he had also agreed with Shaikh that Malik had not acted after reasonable verification of facts before tweeting or holding press conferences and had directed him to first reasonably verify content before making posts in future.
