Rains put off hearing in Raju Srivastav vs Adhikari case

Raju Srivastava’s attorneys will have to wait till Friday to know their client’s future in Bigg Boss house. Heavy rains resulted in the courts shutting shop today thereby pushing the hearing to Friday. Confirming the news, Swati Agarwal of law firm Khaitan & Jayakar (attorney for TV Vision) says, “The rains have forced the courts to shut today. The hearing is now slated for 13 November at 11.00 pm. We hope that the court rules in our favour.” Srivastava has been dragged to court by Markhand Adhikari of production house TV Vision for failing to honour his commitment as brand ambassador for their upcoming channel Mastiii by participating in Bigg Boss. Back then, Adhikari had given a time period up to 30 October for Colors and Endemol India to reply to his notice which claimed that Srivastava had violated his contract by participating in Bigg Boss. Having got no response from them, Adhikari filed a suit against the stand-up comedian for breach of contract and demanded his immediate expulsion from the show. The matter first came up for hearing in Dindoshi Civil Court on 9 November where both parties put forth their claims. TV Vision, represented by M/s Khaitan & Jayakar and DT Gandhi, had stated that they wanted the comedian to first fulfill their contract by shooting for 10 days every month which comes into effect from 1 November. Srivastava had signed this deal in July 2009. He’s said to have taken an initial payment of Rs 1.11 lakh. However, Srivastava’s lawyers Niranjan Bhadang and Ameet Naik had argued that the agreement with TV Vision was only of personal service and couldn’t be legally enforced in the court. Besides, they held that their client was well within his rights to participate in Bigg Boss as it didn’t compete with TV Vision. We tried gauge the mood in the Raju camp but his manager Piyush Upadhay refused to comment.