A Patna court has refused to grant a stay on the telecast of controversial SABe TV serial Ramkhilawa CM ‘n’ Family but served show-cause notices to TV chairman Gautam Adhikari, vice-president Markand Adhikari, chief public relations officer V. Verma, director Vijay Acharya alias Vijay Krishnan, presenter and writer Ashwini Dhir, and artistes Vineet Kumar, Sushmita Mukherjee and Sanjay Mishra, to explain why the telecast should not not be banned. Chief Judicial Magistrate, Patna, S.K. Srivastava, while hearing a title suit filed by senior advocate Radharaman Pradhan yesterday on a permanent ban on the telecast of the serial, declined to permit a stay. The petitioner alleged that the serial depicted Biharis in poor taste and presented the lifestyle of the present Chief Minister in a perverted manner. The court would resume hearing on August 17. Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court today stayed, until August 19, the non-bailable warrant issued by the Patna court against the directors of SABe TV and makers of the serial.The directors had tried to challenge the warrants issued against them. Pradhan also argued that as the serial is produced in Mumbai, the case should be transferred there from Patna. He urged the bench of Justice D.G. Deshpande and Justice A.S. Aguiar to quash and set aside the Patna court’s order. Offences were registered in Bihar under sections of the Indian Penal Code including Section 124 A (sedition), 293 (sale of obscene objects to young person), 294 (obscene acts and songs), 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, place of birth, language, etc and committing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony). As the case drags on in court, RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav has accused the BJP and RSS of trying to malign him using the serial. ‘‘The serial’s timing is decided by the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry,’’ Yadav said. He added that ‘‘the portrait the BJP-RSS combine wanted to project was that of a man who fought for social justice and the poor’’.
