Farm protest remark: Kangana Ranaut's plea dismissed; Punjab and Haryana HC allows defamation trial in Bathinda court to proceed
CHANDIGARH: In a major setback to actor-turned-MP
Kangana Ranaut
, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday dismissed her plea for quashing the summoning order issued against her by a local court in Bathinda in a defamation case.
'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 HC has observed in its detailed order.
The HC further observed that the magistrate 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.
With this, she has to face the trial before the local court in Punjab.
Justice Tribhuvan Singh Dahiya passed these orders while dismissing the plea filed by Kangana.
The defamation complaint against her was filed by Mahinder Kau (73) of Bahadurgarh Jandian village in Bathinda district, alleging that Ranaut had defamed her in a tweet by identifying her wrongly as Bilkis Bano of Shaheen Bagh fame and implying that such women could be hired to protest for Rs 100.
by Taboola
by Taboola
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The tweet, which was later deleted, targeted Mahinder Kaur during her participation in the farmers' agitation at Delhi's borders.
On Feb 22, 2022, Bathinda judicial magistrate had issued summons asking Kangana to appear before the court.
Aggrieved to the lower court order, she had approached the Punjab and Haryana high court contending that the trial court had misapplied Section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
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