Hyderabad City Court Lifts 5-year-old Stay On Ramalinga Raju’s Documentary

XXV Additional Chief Judge DV Nageswara Rao issued the order to vacate the interim injunction orders issued in August 2020. The interim injunction orders were issued as ex-parte, without hearing Netflix, when Ramalinga Raju had approached the civil court. In his petition, Ramalinga Raju had said that the series, which was supposed to release on September 4, 2020, would tarnish his reputation.

In 2020, Netflix India challenged the injunction order in the Telangana High Court, which heard the matter for two months. Raju had argued that the documentary contained “half-truths” that would tarnish his reputation and unlawfully invade his privacy. He claimed that airing the episode could prejudice the ongoing legal appeals against his conviction in the Satyam scam.

Netflix contended that it had invested money to make the series and already it incurred loss because of the lower court`s ex-parte orders. It argued that it had featured the episode based on the chargesheets, and experts’ opinions, which were based on the information already available in the public domain.

Despite the marathon hearing, the High Court sent back the matter to the city civil court in October 2022, directing it to decide the matter within three weeks. Immediately, Netflix filed the vacate petition to lift the stay order on release of the series. The civil court vacated the five-year-old injunction order on December 30, 2025, while keeping the main petition pending. Subsequently, Netflix decided to air the documentary immediately on Wednesday.