A Bombay High Court judge on Thursday said it would not be possible to pronounce judgment on an appeal filed by actor Salman Khan against his neighbor in a defamation case due to paucity of time. Now another judge will hear Salman's petition afresh. Justice CV Bhadang, who heard the arguments in the case and reserved his order, is retiring on Friday. The actor's appeal will now be placed before another judge after the Diwali holidays and will be heard afresh.

Justice Bhadang began hearing Salman's appeal against a trial court's March 2022 order in August. The trial court had refused to restrain Ketan Kakkar, a land owner near Salman's farmhouse in Panvel, from posting a derogatory video post against the actor. He also refused to instruct Kakkar to remove his earlier YouTube videos.

Justice Bhadang had reserved the order on October 11 after completion of arguments. He said on Thursday, "Unfortunately I am not able to complete the decision. I tried my best till last evening. But unfortunately there were holidays, administrative work and I had other jobs.

"I understand the apprehensions of the parties concerned and it has taken a considerable amount of time and effort. I would have preferred to deal with the matter any way I could. Unfortunately it came at the end of my career," he said. The Bollywood star has filed a defamation suit against Kakkar in a trial court over a video uploaded on social media about his activities at his farmhouse in Panvel near Mumbai. When the civil court refused to pass any interim restraining order against Kakkar, Salman moved the high court.

Salman Khan's petition states that the posts uploaded by Kakkar are not only defamatory but are of communal and inflammatory nature. Kakkar's lawyers Abha Singh and Aditya Singh claimed that the actor had filed the defamation suit to pressurize his client to give up his land.