The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a petition by actress and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut seeking the quashing of a criminal defamation complaint filed against her over a tweet referring to a woman who took part in the 2021 farmers’ protests, LiveLaw reported.
The case was heard by a bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta.
As soon as the matter was taken, Justice Mehta expressed reservations about the comments of the petitioner. “What about your comments? It was not a simple re-tweet. You have added your own comments. You have added spice,” Justice Mehta observed, as reported by LiveLaw.
Ranaut moved the top court after her plea, seeking to quash the defamation complaint against her, was rejected by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The High Court had reasoned that the BJP leader had failed to demonstrate how her tweet, which was allegedly defamatory, was made in good faith, ANI reported.
Mahinder Kaur, 73, from Bahadurgarh Jandian village in Punjab’s Bathinda district, filed a complaint in January 2021 in a Bathinda court.
She alleged that the actor made “false imputations and remarks” against her through a retweet, wrongly identifying her as the same “dadi” who participated in the Shaheen Bagh protest.
Kangana’s legal team argued in the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the summoning order issued by the Bathinda court was invalid and violated the criminal procedure code.
(This is a breaking news)
(With inputs from LiveLaw, ANI)