MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court (HC) has refused to pass a blanket gag order to restrain Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik from making public statements or from posting on social media including Twitter targetting Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede.

Justice Madhav Jamdar said that prima facie it cannot be said that the allegations raised by Malik against Wankhede are totally false. 

The HC order came in the defamation suit filed by Wankhede's father Dnyandev who had prayed for an injunction against Malik to restrain him from publishing tweets about his family including that of his son his wife and his daughter. He had also sought damages worth Rs 1.25 crore.

The court said that although Dnyandev had the right to privacy, even Malik the defendant had the right to freedom of speech and expression, "There has to be balancing of fundamental rights," the court said in its order adding that the minister, however, must make statements against Wankhede or his family only after 'reasonable verification of facts.'

Malik has been alleging that Sameer Wankhede, currently posted in Mumbai, was born a Muslim and had secured a central government job claiming to belong to a Scheduled Caste.

Wankhede's father, Dnyandev had filed a defamation suit against Malik earlier this month in the HC, seeking among other things,  that the minister is restrained from posting defamatory statements against him and his family on social media.

A few days after the arrest of Bollywood star Actor Shah Rukh's son, Aryan was arrested in a cruise drug seizure case on October 3, Malik has been alleging that Sameer was born a Muslim and had secured a central government job claiming to belong to a scheduled caste.

Countering Malik’s claim Dnyandev's lawyers Arshad Shaikh and Diwakar Rai had argued that his real name was Dnyandeo Kachruji Wankhede and also submitted his son's birth certificate which showed his real name.

His lawyers also submitted a caste certificate saying he belongs to a 'scheduled caste' community and had argued that everything Malik tweeted was politically motivated and to avenge the arrest of his son-in-law Sameer Khan on January 9 in a narcotics case that was investigated by NCB.

Khan was released after eight months in prison on September 27 when he was granted bail by a special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) court.