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The Delhi High Court today exempted actor Akshay Kumar from personal appearance before a trial court in a defamation case filed by Bata footwear company which had objected to a dialogue in his film ‘Jolly LLB 2’.
“Till the next date of hearing the petitioner (Kumar) is exempted from personal appearance before trial court,” Justice Mukta Gupta said and fixed the matter for hearing on May 23.
The trial court on February 8 had issued summons to “Jolly LLB 2” producer Fox Star Studios India Private Limited, executive producer Naren Kumar, director Subhash Kapoor, Annu Kapoor along with Akshay and others asking them to appear in court in a defamation case filed by Bata shoe company.
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Akshay challenged the summing order in the High Court.
The Bata Limited footwear company had filed a criminal defamation case against the team of “Jolly LLB 2” for using derogatory remarks and defamatory reference to Bata as a brand in the first official trailer of the movie.
The brand Bata has been deliberately shown in an extremely bad taste and the dialogue was intended to convey that Bata footwear is worn only by the lower strata of society and one should feel humiliated if one wears Bata footwear, the company had said in its plea.
The trial court had found prima facie offence under sections 500 (defamation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code, which are made out against the accused and said there were sufficient grounds to proceed against them.
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