Kamaal R Khan moves Bombay High Court against restraining order in Salman Khan defamation suit

Actor Kamaal R Khan (KRK) has approached the Bombay High Court challenging the restraining order passed by a Mumbai court in the defamation complaint filed against him by Bollywood actor Salman Khan..The order under challenge was passed by the Mumbai City Civil Court on June 23, 2021, restraining KRK from making and uploading videos, posting, tweeting or publishing any defamatory content, directly or indirectly, about Salman Khan, his business ventures and films/projects including the latest film 'Radhe'..KRK approached the High Court against this "blanket order" contending that he was a film critic whose job is to review films. .Justice AS Gadkari was informed by Advocate Parag Khandhar appearing for Khan that he was served with the appeal late last night and requires some time to respond to the same.The matter was, therefore, adjourned by 2 weeks with a direction to ensure that all respondents are served. .In his appeal filed through Advocate Manoj Gadkari, KRK sought for quashing of the order of June 2021. The following are few of the grounds taken by KRK:.The lower court committed gross error in granting blanket injunction restraining KRK from putting up content as the ingredients to grant injunction had not been fulfilled;That once a creator had made his creation public, he could not have restricted the public from making opinion on the creation even if the opinion is negative;As a film critic, he is free to review films that are released for public view, or to say whether an actor or actress is hit or flop;The lower court should have limited its orders to the impugned defamatory statements in the suit and not a blanket order restraining KRK from publishing his comments upon review of the present and future films and the order is in the nature of gag order which is improper.The lower court should not have granted a temporary injunction as 'final relief' of permanent injunction as the prayers in the notice of motion and the suit are the same, which is impermissible. .By way of the suit, Khan and his company Salman Khan Ventures Private Limited had sought damages of Rs. 90 lakh from KRK for the alleged defamatory remarks, videos and online content posted by KRK against Khan..It was also alleged that KRK made assertions against Khan's brand 'Being Human' in another video posted on November 2020, claiming that the charity organisation was involved in fraud and money laundering.Khan claimed that such false allegations will tarnish the goodwill, reputation and image of his brand built through years of hard work and efforts..Khan and his business ventures are represented by a team from DSK Legal including Managing Partner Anand Desai, Partner Chandrima Mitra along with Khandhar.