Chandigarh, Sep 16 A court in Punjab's Bathinda has again summoned actress-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut in a defamation case over her remark against an elderly woman farmer protester, and directed the BJP MP to appear at the earliest, with the next hearing scheduled on September 29.
The development comes days after the Supreme Court refused to entertain her petition to quash the proceedings against her.
Before the Apex Court, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had dismissed her plea.
"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," Justice Tribhuvan Singh Dahiya of the High Court had observed.
The defamation complaint against the BJP's Member of Parliament was filed by Mahinder Kaur (73) of Bahadurgarh Jandian village in Bathinda district, alleging that Kangana had defamed her in a post on the social media platform X by identifying her wrongly as Bilkis Bano of Shaheen Bagh fame and implying that such women could be hired to protest for Rs 100.
In her retweet, Kangana had commented: "Ha ha ha, she is the same dadi who featured in Time magazine for being the most powerful Indian... And she is available for 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."
This was in reference to a post by Gautam Yadav, which carried the photograph of the complainant, Kaur, who contended that the defamatory content not only hurt her pride and honour, but also lowered her reputation among fellow protestors.
Kaur said she belonged to a farming family, actively participated in the farmers' agitation, and that the remarks made by Kangna had subjected her to public ridicule and caused mental distress.
On February 22, 2022, the judicial magistrate in Bathinda issued a summons asking Kangana to appear before the court.
Aggrieved by the lower court order, Kangana had approached the High Court first and later the Apex Court, contending that the trial court had misapplied Section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
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