Kangana Ranauts plea against Javed Akhtar dismissed by Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court has dismissed actor Kangana Ranaut’s plea in the defamation case initiated against her by lyricist Javed Akhtar.

Akhtar had filed a defamation case against Kangana Ranaut alleging that the actor had made baseless comments against him on television in an interview with Arnab Goswami.

In response, Ranaut filed a plea with a Mumbai court to cancel the proceedings against her.

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The actor challenged the defamation proceedings that were initiated by the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate’s court earlier this year.

High Court judge Justice Revati Mohite Dere dismissed her plea on Thursday.

Ranaut’s lawyer had argued that the magistrate court had failed to do its duty to which Akhtar’s counsel Jay Bharadwaj replied that the magistrate issued a police inquiry after having gone through his client’s complaint and excerpts of Ranaut’s interview which featured the alleged defamatory comments.

Akhtar had initially filed the defamation case back in November last year before the Andheri metropolitan magistrate. 

In his complaint, Akhtar had alleged that Ranaut had made defamatory statements on national and international television, “in what appears to be a clear campaign to malign and tarnish (Akhtar) in the eyes of the general public”. 

In the follow up to his case, the magistrate directed Juhu police in December 2020 to conduct an inquiry into Akhtar’s complaint against Ranaut.

The inquiry was followed up by the court initiating criminal proceedings against Ranaut and issuing summons in her name earlier in February this year.