Farmers’ protest remark: SC to hear actor Kangana’s plea for quashing defamation case on Sept 12

The Supreme Court would on September 12 hear the plea of actor and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut challenging the high court’s refusal to quash a case against her for allegedly making defamatory remarks in connection with the 2020-21 farmer protests.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta is scheduled to hear the matter.

The actor-turned-politician challenged the defamation case, which stemmed from her retweet consisting of her own comment about a woman protestor during the 2020-21 farmer protests against the now repealed farm laws.

The complaint was filed by Mahinder Kaur (73), who hails from Bahadurgarh Jandian village in Punjab’s Bathinda district in 2021.

Her complaint in a Bathinda court said the actor made “false imputations and remarks” against her in a retweet by saying she was the same “dadi” namely Bilkis Bano, 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 Punjab and Haryana High Court said in its August 1 order, dismissing Ranaut’s plea.

“... A reading of the impugned order as a whole, makes it apparent that the Magistrate (Bathinda court) has duly applied mind to the material on record, and only after recording satisfaction that commission of offence under Sections 499 IPC is prima facie made out against the petitioner, the process has been issued..,” the order read.

The petition was filed before the high court under Section 482 of the erstwhile CrPC for quashing the complaint filed under Section 499/500 of the now repealed IPC and also the summoning order of February 22, 2022 by the trial court.

Kaur said she was also a part of dharnas (sit-ins) and demonstrations since the beginning of the farmers’ protest in 2020-21 against now repealed farm laws.

Despite her old age, she along with other protesters went to Delhi to participate in the agitation.

Kaur said she had absolutely no concern with the woman (dadi) from Shaheen Bagh who featured in the ‘Time’ magazine, with whom she had been compared in the tweet.

It was alleged in this manner, the petitioner Ranaut made “false imputation and defamatory remarks against the complainant hurting her pride, honour, and defaming her on social media”.

Kaur filed the complaint in Bathinda in January 2021.

Kangana’s counsel argued in the high court that the summoning order of the Bathinda court was not sustainable being violative of criminal procedure code.

After recording of preliminary evidence by the complainant, the magistrate called for a report from director, Twitter Communications India Private Limited (TCIPL), and he could not have summoned the petitioner as the report was never received, it was argued.

It was also contended that Ranaut had no intention to harm the complainant’s reputation.

Justice Dahiya, in his order, observed, “...Non-receipt of report by TCIPL as to whether the alleged retweet has been made by the petitioner, cannot be a ground to divest the Magistrate (of court in Bathinda) of jurisdiction under Section 202 CrPC. The report could not be submitted as the company was neither the owner nor in control of twitter.com, and was a separate entity engaged only in research, development and marketing.”