The suit also seeks an injunction against the news agency from publishing `defamatory matter' against the serial. Summons have been issued to UNI General Manager and Chief Editor Virender Mohan, for March 11.

In a related move, Khanna has also moved the Delhi High Court seeking to invoke the arbitration clause contained in the agreement with Doordarshan. According to the agreement--which was signed between Khanna's company, Bhisham International, and Doordarshan on September 6, 1997--the Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, may appoint an arbitrator to settle any dispute between the two parties.

Khanna has also sought an interimorder under Section 9 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act of 1996, to allow airing of the serial till the dispute is settled. Notices have been issued to the Director General, Doordarshan and the Controller of Programmes for DD for March 11.

Both cases were filed in the New Delhi High Court on March 4. Earlier, Khanna had filed a complaint in the Press Council of India on February 24 against `baseless reporting' by UNI. Khanna has alleged that the incidents of children setting themselves on fire with the hope that Shaktimaan would come to their rescue were ``either false or not related in any way to the serial.'' Following the reports, Doordarshan had decided to take the serial off the air. It was served a notice period of four weeks which expires on March 23.

Khanna had roped in a PR agency, Abacus Integrated Corporate Communications to help combat the `disinformation campaign.' The PR agency's assignment involves handling crisis management and image-building. ``The PR challenge is to present thecorrect picture of what is behind the controversy and to contain the perceptual momentum being created against the serial by some baseless news reports,'' says Khalid Jamal, vice president, Abacus.

As part of its damage containing exercise, a detective agency, Globe Detective Agency, was commissioned by the plaintiff to investigate the incidents and it is claimed that the probe revealed that while some like the Begumsarai incident was found to be non-existent, the Mumbai, Jaipur and Nasik incidents were totally unrelated to the serial.

Shaktimaan has been enjoying a 30-35 DART (DD Audience Research TV ratings) rating over the last 4-5 months.

In its February 24 letter to the Chairman of the Press Council, the plaintiffs had said that after investigating the reported incidents and finding them to be false, ``we took up the matter with UNI, requesting them to flash an apology for irresponsible reporting, specially given the fact that this particular report (from Nasik) instigated DD to serve our clients anotice of discontinuation. Unfortunately, UNI has not got back to us..'' It then urged the PCI to issue necessary instructions to them to tender a public apology and flash the same to all papers who had carried the news items.