Delhi HC refuses to stay streaming of 'Gunjan Saxena - The Kargil Girl'

New Delhi:Delhi High Court on Wednesday after hearing Centre's plea, refused to stay at this stage the streaming of Netflix movie 'Gunjan Saxena - The Kargil Girl.' The Centre has filed the petition for granting the decree of permanent injunction against the defendants from broadcasting or releasing in theatres or any other digital platform the film 'Gunjan Saxena', without grant of no-objection certificate (NOC). 

Counsel for the Central Government has submitted before the court that the movie has dented the image of the Indian Air Force by showing that the force is 'gender biased.' The Counsel pleaded that the picture was never shown to the preview committee, set up in accordance with the Ministry of Defence's 2013 guidelines, NOC was not taken from IAF, objections flagged by them were ignored and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoC) was not signed.He sought injunction by submitting that "the India Air Force, we give the highest regards to women but IAF's image has been dented."

Counsel for Dharma Productions submitted that the plea of Centre is devoid of any merit and he has also seen the movie which had portrayed the IAF in a very good light and IAF comes out in glory. "There is no organisation which does not have gender issues. Anything said in criticism is not slander. You can't pick four scenes and say slander." Counsel for Netflix submitted that the script of the movie was shared with the IAF in 2018 and the film was shown to them in February.

Delhi High Court Justice Rajiv Shakdher today after hearing asked the Centre why it did not approach the Court before the release of the movie on the Over The Top (OTT) platform. 

The Court said that an injunction cannot be granted now as the film is already streaming. 

The court has also issued notices and sought response of Dharma Productions Private Limited and its Directors Karan Yash Johar and Hiroo Yash Johar, CEO Apporva Mehta, Zee Entertainment, Netflix on the plea of Centre and interim application who pleads to remove the movie from all OTT platforms.

The court has listed the matter for further hearing on September 18 and asked the Centre to remove IAF from the memo of parties, saying the government can itself take this forward.

The court said in it's order that that former Flight Lieutenant Gunjan Saxena, on whose life the film is based, should also be made a party to the suit and issued notice to her seeking her response.(UNI)