District Consumer Forum dismisses plea to summon Shahrukh Khan in Fair & Handsome case

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, New Delhi has dismissed a plea to summon Shahrukh Khan, the brand ambassador for Emami’s Fair and Handsome, in a case filed against the claims made by the fairness cream.

In 2015, the District Forum had ruled in favour of the complainant Nikhil Jain, and directed Emami to withdraw its advertisement for the product. Emami was also ordered to pay Rs 15 lakh as punitive damages to the Consumer Welfare Fund maintained by the State Commission at Delhi.

On appeal however, the State Commission noted that the complainant had not presented any evidence save for his personal affidavit. Counsel for the opposite party also made reference to a Bar & Bench article that reported on the filing of the application to summon the Bollywood actor.

Given that the burden of proof is upon the complainant and that the order had serious consequences on the appellant (Emami), the Commission proceeded to set aside the District Court order.  It remanded the matter back to the District Court, holding,

“… we find that while passing the impugned order, the Ld. District Forum has not considered the entire material on record. We, therefore, set aside the impugned order and remand back the case to the District Forum for deciding afresh after considering material on record and giving an opportunity of hearing to both the parties. The Ld. District Forum shall make all endeavours to decide the complaint with 4 months of receipt of the order.”

Following this, the complainant had filed a plea to summon Emami’s brand ambassador Shahrukh Khan last May. However, the forum today rejected his application noting that that the State Commission had specifically directed that the matter be heard considering the material on record.

“…It is crystal clear that the Hon’ble State Commission has remanded the matter back to this Forum for deciding afresh after considering the materials on record and not by adducing fresh evidence.

It is well settled law that remand is not meant to give another chance to the parties to fill up the lacuna or to substantiate that the complainant or OP have failed to prove or establish.”

Hence the application was dismissed for want of merit. The case is posted for arguments on December 18.

Abhimanyu Bhandari and Nattasha Garg of Axon Partners LLP have been advising Emami Group on the case.

Image taken from here.

Read Order below.

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