Kangana Ranaut on Friday withdrew her plea before the Supreme Court seeking quashing of a defamation complaint lodged against her over a tweet posted during the 2020–21 farmers’ agitation. The court, however, remarked that the actor-turned-politician had not merely shared someone else’s words but had “added spice” to them.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta made it clear that the petition was not fit for adjudication at this stage. “It is not a simple retweet as you say. You had added something, you added spice to what was existing,” Justice Mehta observed.
The counsel for Ranaut maintained that she had only retweeted the content. “She retweeted the same. The original tweet itself had a lot of retweets by other people,” the lawyer submitted. The bench, however, said, “What does that impute? It is a subject matter of trial.”
Justice Mehta further told the counsel that any clarification could be placed before the trial court, not in quashing proceedings. “Don’t ask us to comment on what has been written at page 35. It may prejudice your trial. Don’t ask us to comment. You may have a valid defence, we are not on that. But then there are other ways to do that.”
When Ranaut’s counsel highlighted the difficulty of the actor travelling to Punjab in the present circumstances, the bench suggested that exemption from appearance could be sought. “Today is a situation for me that in Punjab, I can’t travel,” the lawyer said, to which the bench responded that relief could be pursued before the lower court.
Justice Nath then asked whether the petitioner intended to withdraw the plea. “I will withdraw,” the counsel replied, after which the bench dismissed the matter as withdrawn.
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The actor had approached the apex court against an August 1 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court refusing to quash the defamation complaint filed by 73-year-old Mahinder Kaur, a resident of Bathinda district.
Kaur alleged that Ranaut, while retweeting content during the agitation against the now-repealed farm laws, had compared her to an elderly protestor from the Shaheen Bagh movement. The complaint said the imputations were “false and defamatory” and had injured her pride and reputation.
“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 high court had ruled.
Kaur, who participated in sit-ins and demonstrations throughout the farmers’ protest, maintained she had no connection with the woman from Shaheen Bagh who had been featured in Time magazine.
Her complaint, filed in January 2021, contended that Ranaut’s social media post caused her humiliation and defamed her publicly.
Ranaut’s lawyers argued before the high court that the Bathinda magistrate’s summoning order was unsustainable, claiming that no report had been received from Twitter Communications India Private Limited after preliminary evidence was recorded. It was further contended that the actor never intended to harm Kaur’s reputation.
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