HC seeks Nawab Malik's reply on contempt plea by Sameer Wankhede

The Bombay High Court on Thursday sought NCP leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Maliks reply to the contempt plea filed by Dnyandev Wankhede father of the former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau NCB Sameer WankhedeA bench of Justices S J Kathawalla and Milind Jadhav also sought to know why Malik was repeatedly taking concessions with the undertaking he submitted to the high court on not making any defamatory comments against the Wankhedes It said that if the minister was to misuse the concession in such a manner then the court will withdraw itLast month Dnyandev Wankhede had filed the contempt petition in the high court against Malik alleging that the minister had committed a wilful breach of his undertaking given to the court in December last year of not making or posting any defamatory comments against the WankhedesDnyandev Wankhede had filed a suit in the high court last year seeking to restrain Malik from making any public comments or social media posts that were defamatory and derogatory to him his son Sameer or their familyDuring previous hearings on the suit Malik had undertaken before the high court to not make any such statements against the Wankhedes until further hearing in court However he had clarified at the time that such undertaking did not restrain him from making comments on a public servants including Sameer Wankhedes discharge of official dutiesIn his contempt plea Dnyandev Wankhede claimed that Malik had breached his undertaking and made objectionable comments as recently as January 2 and 3 this yearOn Thursday Dnyandevs counsel senior advocate Birendra Saraf pointed out some comments made by Malik after having given his undertaking against Sameer Wankhede pertaining to his caste certificate and the cruise ship drug seizure case involving actor Shah Rukh Khans son Aryan KhanThese are not issues pertaining to discharge of his Sameers official duties thereafter after the undertaking given by Malik It is all about the past His statements say illegal licence fake caste certificate and Aryan Khan drug case Saraf saidHe told the high court that this was a case for initiating contempt proceedings against MalikIrked after going through Maliks comments Justice Kathawalla said if the minister was to misuse the concession in such a manner then the court will withdraw itIf you take concession with this intention then we will withdraw the concession Directly or indirectly you Malik want to defame the man Wankhede What is your intention the bench askedMaliks counsel Ramesh Dube said the minister wanted to file his reply to show that these statements fell within the concession on making comments only about a public officers official discharge of dutiesThe high court then asked Malik to file his reply and scheduled the matter for further hearing on February 7 This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever