The Delhi High Court on Wednesday declined a petition by the Centre and the Indian Air Force (IAF) to stay the streaming of Netflix movie, Gunjan Saxena - The Kargil Girl, but said it would hear directly from former Flight Lieutenant Gunjan Saxena herself on the allegations that the movie depicted the force in a bad light.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher made Ms. Saxena, based on whose life the movie is made, a party in the suit filed by the Centre and sought response from her on the issue. The High Court also sought the response of Dharma Productions Private Limited, which produced the movie, director Karan Johar and Netflix.

During the hearing, the court asked the Centre as to why it did not approach it before release of the movie on the Over The Top (OTT) platform and said a stay could not be granted now as the film was already streaming.

Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain (ASG), representing the Centre, said the movie was never shown to the preview committee, set up in accordance with the Ministry of Defence’s 2013 guidelines.

The Ministry of Defence and the IAF, in the suit filed through Central government standing counsel Gaurang Kanth, stated that the IAF “has always provided equal opportunities to the meritorious officers irrespective of their gender, caste, region, religion, etc.”

The Ministry stated that a historical film made on the IAF based on the life story of a war hero had to be based on true incidents or instances as the audience watching such a biopic film assumed so.

“Such a movie cannot be fictionalised or dramatised to such an extent as in the present movie, wherein an entirely different perspective is created based on false and misleading facts/ events that leave an adverse impression in the minds of the viewers, thereby tarnishing the image of the true characters and the organisation,” the Ministry argued.

“The facts have been completely distorted to give an impression to the public at large that the Indian Air Force practises gender bias and discrimination,” it said.

The suit stated that the producers of the movie went ahead with its release on Netflix without obtaining a no objection certificate from the IAF.

Senior Advocate Harish Salve, representing Dharma Productions, said the movie was only ‘inspired’ from the life of Ms. Saxena. Mr. Salve, who claimed to have seen the movie himself, said, the Air Force came out in glory.

“There is no organisation which does not have gender issue. Anything said in criticism is not slander,” Mr. Salve added.

Netflix’s counsel argued that the script was shared with the IAF and even the movie was shown to the IAF in February 2020.

The High Court will hear the case again on September 18.