HC to pass order on Nov 22 on plea filed by Wankhede's father seeking injunction against Malik

The Bombay High Court on Thursday said it will pass an order on November 22 on a plea filed by Dnyandev Wankhede, father of NCB's zonal director Sameer Wankhede, seeking interim reliefs against Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, including an injunction prohibiting him from posting any defamatory content on social media against him and his family.

A single bench of Justice Madhav Jamdar on Thursday took on record additional documents submitted by Malik and Dnyandev Wankhede, related to the ongoing controversy over the NCB officer's caste certificate.

Malik has been alleging that Sameer Wankhede, though born a Muslim, had secured a central government job claiming to be from the Scheduled Caste category. But Wankhede has denied the allegations levelled against him. The documents that both the parties submitted before the court on Thursday include Sameer Wankhede's birth certificate and his school leaving certificate.

Malik submitted a letter by the Public Health Officer of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) with a copy of the declaration pertaining to the change of name of Sameer Wankhede, and two school leaving certificates issued for Wankhede by St Joseph's High School and St Paul High School in the city in the 1980s.

All of these documents, Malik claimed, showed that Wankhede was born a Muslim and that his father's real name was not Dnyandev but Dawood.

As per Malik's claims made before the high court the name of the NCB officer's father was Dawood K Wankhede and it was only in 1993 that he got it changed to Dnyandev Wankhede.

Dnyandev Wankhede, however, countered Malik's claims and submitted a digitised birth certificate issued by the BMC for Sameer Wankhede and his own caste certificate. Dnyandev Wankhede's counsel, advocate Arshad Shaikh, said these two documents show that Sameer Wankhede's father's name had always been Dnyandev and that the NCB officer was born a Hindu and belonged to Mahar community, a Scheduled Caste. He said Sameer Wankhede's birth certificate had initially mistakenly mentioned his father's name as Dawood, but the same had been corrected ''way back''.

Advocate Shaikh further argued that Malik had been tweeting and making defamatory statements against the Wankhedes without verifying facts.

He said that as per Malik's own documents submitted in the high court, the minister received Sameer Wankhede's birth certificate two days ago in response to his RTI query, although he had been making statements on the NCB zonal director being a Muslim and lying about his caste certificate even before receipt of copies of his birth certificate. Shaikh further told the high court that the NCP leader must stop calling Dnyandev as Dawood.

''He (Malik) should not continue to call me Dawood since it was corrected to Dnyandev way back. Somehow, for the last four days he kept quiet. Then he has started again,'' said Shaikh. ''Whether his birth certificate is right or mine that has to be seen,'' he told the high court. The documents were submitted and the arguments were made over a defamation plea filed by Dnyandev Wankhede seeking several reliefs against Malik. Dnyandev Wankhede had sought as an interim relief, a temporary injunction restraining Malik from making any statements in the future about Sameer Wankhede or his family.

On November 12, the high court had reserved its order on the aspect of interim relief sought by Dnyandev Wankhede in his defamation suit.

However, on November 16, Malik moved the high court seeking its permission to place on record additional documents.

On Thursday, after taking the above-mentioned documents on record, Justice Jamdar reserved his order on the interim application filed by Dnyandev pertaining to the temporary injunction against Malik.

The high court said it will pronounce its order on the same on November 22. The high court directed both the parties to refrain from submitting any fresh documents until it pronounces its order on November 22.

The NCB officer's father had filed a defamation suit against Malik earlier this month in the high court, seeking among other things, that the minister be restrained from posting defamatory statements against him and his family on social media. He has also sought damages worth Rs 1.25 crore.

Malik has been fiercely attacking Sameer Wankhede after the Narcotics Control Bureau's raid on a cruise party last month following which around 20 people, including actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, were arrested. Aryan Khan and some other accused were later released on bail.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)