The Bombay High Court rejected Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut’s plea to quash the defamation case filed against her by lyricist-screenwriter Javed Akhtar on Thursday morning.
According to reports, the court had reserved its order regarding quashing of the case on September 1. On Thursday, High Court judge, Justice Revati Mohite Dere, said that Kangana Ranaut’s application “stands dismissed”, which means that actress has to be present for the next hearing in the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate's court on September 14.
In their appeal to quash the defamation case, Ranaut’s lawyer Rizwan Siddique had previously told the High Court that the Metropolitan Magistrate had failed to apply their mind in the case.
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However, Jay Bharadwaj, Javed Akhtar’s lawyer told the High Court that the magistrate only issued summons after directing the police for inquiry regarding the complaint filed by Akhtar and went through excerpts of Ranaut's interview, in which she had made the alleged defamatory comments.
During the case’s hearing in the Metropolitan Magistrate's court on August 27, the judge had instructed Ranaut to be present during the next hearing in the case and warned her that warrant will be issued against the actor if she wasn’t present during the hearing.
For the uninitiated, Javed Akhtar had filed the defamation case against the actor, after she named him, in her interview with Republic in July last year. In December 2020, court ordered police to look into the complaint filed by Akhtar, and later issued summons to the actress in February.
