The Supreme Court on Friday declined to interfere with a defamation case pending against actor and Member of Parliament Kangana Ranaut over her controversial remarks on an elderly woman protester during the 2021 farmers’ agitation.
A Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta, hearing Ranaut’s plea for quashing the proceedings before a Bathinda court, observed, “What do you say about your comments? You added spice. It was not a simple retweet. The interpretation of this tweet can’t be considered in a quashing petition. Your clarification is for the trial court, not in a quashing petition.”
The Bench further told her lawyer, “The complaint may be dismissed for inadmissibility of evidence. Don’t ask us to comment on your tweet. It may prejudice your trial. You withdraw this. You want to withdraw?”
Following this, Ranaut’s counsel chose to withdraw the petition.
The case stems from a social media post in which Ranaut alleged that protester Mahinder Kaur had been paid to join the agitation. Her tweet read: “Ha ha ha, she is the same dadi who featured in Time magazine for being the most powerful Indian… And she is available in 100 rupees. Pakistani jurno’s have hijacked international PR for India in an embarrassing way. We need our own people to speak for us internationally.”
Defending Ranaut, her counsel argued that the tweet was not about Kaur but about Bilkis Bano, also known as the “Shaheen Bagh dadi.” He said Ranaut had clarified this later, but the clarification was ignored by the courts.
The Bathinda magistrate had on February 22, 2022, summoned Ranaut under Sections 499 and 500 of the IPC. The Punjab and Haryana High Court, in its August 1 order, refused to quash the summons, holding that the magistrate had applied his mind and a prima facie case of defamation was made out.
The trial court complaint alleges Ranaut implied that the elderly woman was portrayed fraudulently in the media for monetary gain, and that her comments amounted to derogatory insinuations.