SC Stays Contempt Proceedings against Netflix for Airing ‘Wild Karnataka’

The Supreme Court has stayed the contempt proceedings initiated by the Karnataka High Court against OTT Platform Netflix for airing the documentary ‘Wild Karnataka’ despite a judicial order restraining its streaming.

A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Satish Chandra Sharma considered the submissions of the Indian arm of the “over-the-top” (OTT) platform and directed the high court to temporarily refrain from proceeding with the contempt proceedings against it.

Previously, the high court had levied civil contempt charges against several broadcasters, including BBC, Discovery, and Netflix, in a case where filmmakers and broadcasters were accused of disregarding a 2021 interim order of the court regarding the release and telecast of the documentary.

While staying the contempt proceedings against the OTT giant, Chief Justice Chandrachud remarked orally, “How can Netflix be held for contempt? The footage was immediately removed. The Karnataka High Court has so many important matters. Why pursue a contempt case against Netflix?”

The case revolves around an interim order issued by the high court on June 29, 2021, in response to a plea filed by Ravindra N Redkar and Ullash Kumar. The order prohibited the filmmakers and platforms involved from engaging in any use, publication, reproduction, broadcasting, telecasting, marketing, selling, or dealing with the film and its raw footage obtained from the forest department.

According to the case details, Mudskipper Labs and ITV Studios Global had engaged Kalyan Varma and Amoghavarsha to film a documentary in 2014. After signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Karnataka Forest Department (KFD) for the documentary, the accused allegedly utilized the services of the KFD, such as transport and shooting permissions, without paying any charges.

The high court was informed that necessary permission to waive the fees was not obtained. The MoU granted the copyrights of the documentary and raw footage to the KFD, but the filmmakers involved Icon Films of England and Wales without the department’s knowledge.

These companies subsequently entered into agreements with BBC, Discovery, and Netflix for broadcasting, despite the KFD specifying that the film would not be commercially used. The film was also released in theaters.

The original footage, amounting to 400 hours, was claimed to be under the copyright of the KFD. The high court, on June 29, 2021, issued an interim order forbidding all respondents from publishing or telecasting the film. However, the film was released in theaters and broadcast on various platforms. Subsequently, the complainants filed a contempt petition before the high court, while the original petition is still pending.