HC tells court to decide on airing Netflix episode on Satyam Raju

HYDERABAD: Throwing back a two-year-long pending legal spat between the OTT operator Netflix and erstwhile Satyam computers’ B. Ramalinga Raju on the release of a documentary series made on his life, the Telangana High Court on Wednesday asked the City Civil Court to decide the matter within three weeks, immediately after the Netflix company filed a vacate petition to lift the stay order issued earlier.

The Netflix series, Bad Boy Billionaires — India, was released two years ago with four episodes, but the fourth episode on Ramalinga Raju was stayed by the court.

Bad Boy Billionaires was reportedly described as an investigative documentary series  produced by Netflix Entertainments Ltd., about various billionaire entrepreneurs including liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, Sahara group’s Subrata Roy and jeweller and diamantaire Nirav Modi, who are all facing fraud allegations.  Ramalinga Raju was featured in the fourth episode, which never saw the light of the day.

In the last week of  August 2020, Ramalinga Raju approached the civil court at Hyderabad seeking to stop the release of the episode on Netflix, which was made upon him. He had said that the episode on him, which was supposed to release on September 4, 2020, along with the other three, if released, would tarnish his reputation. On his request, the Civil Court  had issued ex-parte orders, directing Netflix as to not release the series on Ramalinga Raju and by issuing notices to Netflix.

Challenging the ex-parte orders, Netflix approached the Telangana High Court in September 2020. The case was heard by the then Division Bench at regular intervals for a period of two months.

After the transfer of the then Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan, and due to the online hearings during the pandemic, the case was taken up as a priority. However, Netflix contended that it had invested money to make the series and it went to loss with the lower court’s ex-parte orders.

On Wednesday, when the case was listed before the Division Bench comprising Justice Shameem Akther and Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka, the bench questioned the counsel for Netflix as to why it did not file the vacate petition before the lower court on ex-parte orders, instead of waiting.

Senior counsel C.V. Mohan Reddy, representing Netflix, said that the matter was already before the High Court, so it did not file a vacate petition. Senior counsel S. Niranjan Reddy argued on behalf of Satyam Raju.

Disposing the case before it, the High Court suggested Netflix to file a vacate petition before the Civil Court, which was instructed to decide on it within three weeks, after the vacate petition was filed.