Gurugram school murder: HC restrains Netflix, CNA from streaming 'A Big Little Murder'

The Delhi High Court has halted the broadcast/streaming of the documentary A Big Little Murder which is based on the murder of a Class 2 student of a Gurugram school who was found dead inside the washroom of the school. In an order dated August 10, a single-judge bench of Justice Jayant Nath restrained streaming giant, Netflix and Channel News Asia from broadcasting the said documentary. 

However, the bench granted the liberty to the defendants to release the said documentary if they delete all references to the school in question and delete portions where the said school's building is depicted. "In my opinion, the impugned act is contrary to the orders passed by the trial court and the co-ordinate bench of this court. Plaintiff has made out a prima facie case...The defendants are restrained from streaming, broadcasting, telecasting, etc. the documentary titled A Big Little Murder or any of its abridged versions," the order said. 

The court further said, "I may clarify that the defendants may stream the said documentary after deleting all references to the plaintiff school in question and deleting the portion where the building of the school is depicted."

The orders were passed on a plea filed by the Gurugram-based school, through its trust, against the streaming of the documentary titled A Big Little Murder being streamed on the website of Channel News Asia(CNA) and Netflix.

St. Xaviers Trust had knocked the High Court by way of an application under Order 39 Rules 1 and 2 CPC seeking an ex parte injunction to restrain the defendants from marketing, broadcasting, streaming, telecasting and making available in any form or in any medium the documentary or its trailers or abridged versions and also to take down the same from the website and social media platforms.

It was contended by the plaintiff that in another case pertaining to the release of a book on the same trial, the coordinate bench of the Hon’ble High Court was pleased to vide order dated 22.01.2021 stay the release of the book as it contained references and used the name of the plaintiff’s school.

The Plaintiff Trust was represented by Rajeev Virmani, Senior Advocate and Sandeep Kapur, Senior Partner, Karanjawala & Co. along with Meghna Mishra- Partner, Karanjawala & Co., Ankit Rajgarhia, Apoorva Pandey-, Gudipati G. Kashyap, Tarun Sharma and Deveshi Madan.

The said documentary was released on Netflix on August 6 this year. The documentary pertains to the unfortunate tragic death of a 7-year-old student at the school.

What is the Gurugram school murder case?

A 7-year-old student from a school in Gurugram was found with injuries on his neck outside the school washroom on September 8, 2017. He was later taken to a nearby hospital but the doctors couldn't save him and he succumbed to his injuries. A bus conductor was initially charged for the minor's murder but when the case got transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) it was discovered that a 16-year-old boy from the same school was behind the tragic incident. He was later sent to remand.