Kangana Ranaut Defamation Case: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to accept actor and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut’s petition seeking to quash complaints over X post during the farmers’ protest in 2020-2021. The SC said Ranaut “added spice” to an existing post which already had certain questionable materials. The court noted that the post in question has several retweets and the actress did the same.
It was not a simple retweet and you had “added spice” to what was existing, the Supreme Court said, reported PTI. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta told Kangana‘s counsel that the interpretation of the post or retweet in question couldn’t be considered in a quashing petition at least.
Following this, Ranaut agreed to withdraw her plea for quashing the defamation complaint. She moved the apex court challenging an order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which refused to quash the complaint against her over a post during farmers’ protest in 2020-21.
‘What do you say about your comments?’: SC asked
The apex court asked the actress’ counsel to explain about the comment she made while resharing the X post in question. Her counsel argued, saying, “She retweeted the same. The original tweet itself had a lot of retweets by other people.”
“What do you say about your comments at page 35? It is not a simple retweet as you say. You had added something, you added spice to what was existing,” Justice Mehta asked, quoted PTI.
When the counsel referred to the reshared post, the court said, “What does that impute? It is a subject matter of trial.” It further said that the Mandi MP’s clarification could be given in the trial court and not in the quashing proceedings.
The lawyer argued her clarification was not taken into consideration by the trail court. Meanwhile, on her comment, the bench said, “Don’t ask us to comment on what has been written at page 35. It may prejudice your trial. Don’t ask us to comment. You may have a valid defence, we are not on that. But then there are other ways to do that.”
The actress’ lawyer expressed unavailability for her appearance in Punjab, to which the bench said she may seek exemption from appearance.
The counsel said the trial court, while issuing summons to Ranaut in the matter, did not consider her clarification.
“The complainant may have chosen not to file it. It may be a valid defence for you,” the bench said.
The bench added, “Don’t ask us to comment on what has been written at page 35. It may prejudice your trial. Don’t ask us to comment. You may have a valid defence, we are not on that. But then there are other ways to do that.” Justice Nath asked the counsel whether the petitioner wanted to withdraw the plea.
“I will withdraw,” the lawyer said, following which the bench allowed it.
What is the case?
The actor-turned-politician had challenged the defamation complaint against her over a retweet comprising her own comment about a woman protestor during the 2020-21 farmer protests against the now repealed farm laws. Complainant Mahinder Kaur (73), who hails from Bahadurgarh Jandian village in Punjab’s Bathinda district in 2021, had filed the complaint in Bathinda in January 2021.
In her complaint, the elderly woman said the actor made “false imputations and remarks” against her in a retweet by saying she was the same “dadi” who was part of the Shaheen Bagh protest.
“There are specific allegations against the petitioner who is a celebrity, that false and defamatory imputations by her in the retweet have dented the respondent’s reputation and lowered her in her own estimation, as also in the eyes of others. Therefore, filing of the complaint to vindicate her rights cannot be termed mala fide,” the high court said in its August 1 order.
The woman said she was also a part of dharnas (sit-ins) and demonstrations since the beginning of the farmers protest in 2020-21 against the now repealed farm laws. However, Kaur added, she had absolutely no concern with the woman (dadi) from Shaheen Bagh who featured in ‘Time’ magazine, with whom she had been compared in the tweet, the report mentioned.
The plea accused Ranaut of making “false imputation and defamatory remarks against the complainant hurting her pride, honour, and defaming her on social media”.