Bad Boy Billionaires: SC rejects Netflix's appeal against Bihar court order restraining use of Subrata Roy's name

The Supreme Court on Wednesday, 2 September, refused to entertain a Netflix appeal against a Bihar lower court order restraining it from using the name of businessman Subrata Roy in its upcoming web series Bad Boy Billionaires.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, however, granted liberty to Netflix to approach the Patna High Court against the order passed by a lower court at Araria, Bihar.

“Dismissed. We are sorry,” the bench said while rejecting the appeal.

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Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Netflix, told the bench that several petitions pertaining to the web series are pending in various high courts and the apex court should transfer these matters to itself.

The bench issued a notice on the separate petitions filed by Netflix seeking transfer of the matters pending before different high courts.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Sahara India, opposed the Netflix plea and said that the order was passed by a civil judge and an appeal would lie before the district judge and not before the high court or the apex court.

On 28 August, Delhi High Court dismissed a plea by Mehul Choksi, an accused in the nearly $2 billion PNB scam, to conduct a pre-screening of Bad Boy Billionaires.

The court said his remedy lies in a civil suit and granted him the liberty to raise the issue in civil court.

The web series, scheduled for release in India on 2 September, is promoted by Netflix as, “This investigative docuseries explores the greed, fraud and corruption that built up - and ultimately brought down - India’s most infamous tycoons."

It takes a look at controversial cases of infamous businessmen Vijay Mallya (of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines), fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, Sahara Group's Roy and Satyam Computers CEO Byrraju Ramalinga Raju.

(With inputs from Press Trust of India)