Bombay HC rejects Kangana Ranaut’s petition in defamation case by Javed Akhtar
Javed Akhtar registered an illicit objection against Kangana Ranaut before the Andheri city magistrate for allegedly making insulting and baseless comments against him in a television interview given to journalist Arnab Goswami.
In November last year, Javed Akhtar registered an illicit objection against Kangana Ranaut before the Andheri city magistrate for allegedly making insulting and baseless comments against him in a television interview given to journalist Arnab Goswami.
In December 2020, the court assisted the Juhu police in executing an inquiry into Javed Akhtar’s complaint against Kangana Ranaut and then proposed criminal proceedings against her and issued a warrant for her in February this year.
In his criticism, Akhtar had stated that Ranaut had made defamatory statements on national and international television, "in what appears to be clearly offensive to hate and embarrass (Akhtar) in the eyes of the general public".
High court judge, Justice Revati Mohite Dere, on September 1 who had kept her order on the petition, said the applicant's (Kangana Ranaut's) petition "stands dismissed".
Mr. Akhtar's counsel, Jay Bharadwaj, however, told the supreme court that the judge had aimed for the police inquiry after browsing through the lyricist's complaint and the sayings of Kangana Ranaut's statement, during which she had made the alleged defamatory comments.
Ms. Ranaut, through her advisor Rizwan Siddiquee, had imposed the defamation proceedings that were brought into by the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate's court earlier this year, saying that the court had forgotten to apply its mind to the case.
Siddiquee added that it was an "unfair analysis" as the magistrate had exploited powers under the CrPC "without application of mind" and uselessly asked the police to conduct an inquiry for him by investing powers in them.
However, advocate Jay Bharadwaj, representing Akhtar, opposed the plea and said that due policy was followed by the magistrate. He submitted that in order to conduct an impartial inquiry, all the people involved were called up by him, but Ranaut was determined not to attend to the matter.
Akhtar’s affidavit, in reply, needed discharge of the plea and said that the same was filed with the "only intent to delay the proceedings".
