The Delhi High Court on Monday (July 16) asked whether an actor can be held liable for the dialogues and does it amount to defamation.

“Why have you made the actor as a party to the case? Can we stop a viewpoint from being aired? Should we stall such a viewpoint from being aired? Shouldn’t the viewer make up his own point?” the bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar asked.

The court observed this while hearing a plea filed by Nikhil Bhalla seeking directions for the removal the offensive scenes and derogatory remarks directly or indirectly on the former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi and on his family which are beamed through over-the-top media services provider Netflix in the series Sacred Games.

During the course of proceedings, lawyers appearing for Netflix told the bench that all eight episodes have already been aired. Nothing new will be aired.

The bench asked the petitioner: “It is already on air. What do we stop?”

Petitioner submitted that there are two scenes where English translation has a different derogatory word. They have modified some but need to take out these scenes. It is a scene against a former PM for now, what happens next? Would these be the standards that are aired?

Bench questioned petitioner, can the court hear an issue of defamation in a PIL? This will have larger implication.

However, bench gave sometime to the petitioner to justify its locus in the petition while adjourning the hearing to July 19.

Sacred Games is in the eye of storm for allegedly portraying Gandhi family in bad light. Emergency, Shah Bano moves by the Congress party have been featured in the series garnering backlash by the Congress leaders.

—India Legal Bureau