CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday issued notice to Mahinder Kaur of Bathinda on a plea filed by actor Kangana Ranaut against her summoning in a defamation case by a lower court.
“Meanwhile, the trial court shall adjourn the criminal complaint case, as pending before it, beyond the next date of hearing as fixed in the present petition,” ordered the HC, while adjourning the hearing of the case for September 8. It means the hearing of the defamation case against Kangana shall not take place before the lower court in Bathinda till Kangana’s plea before the HC is heard.
Justice Meenakshi I Mehta of the HC has passed these orders after taking cognizance of a plea filed by Ranaut challenging the February orders passed by a Bathinda court in a defamation case on the complaint filed by woman farmer Kaur under Sections 499 and 500 IPC.
On January 4, 2021, Kaur, a native of Fatehgarh Jandia village in Bathinda, had moved Bathinda court for Ranaut’s tweet (later deleted), calling her Bilkis Bano of Shaheen Bagh fame and writing that such women could be hired into protests for Rs 100.
In her late seventies, Kaur had recorded evidence in support of her application on January 11, 2021, saying that the words used by Ranaut had harmed her image. The family owns 12 acres of land and accusing them of going to protests for Rs 100 was intolerable for them, she had stated.
In her plea challenging her summoning, the actor’s counsel has now contended that that while passing the impugned summoning order, the trial court has misconstrued the provisions as contained in Section 202 CrPc. “Moreover, the petitioner had only re-tweeted the tweet texted by ‘Adhivakta Gautam Yadav’ who has not even been arrayed as an accused in the complaint case filed by the respondent against the petitioner and this fact, in itself, shows the ulterior motive behind the filing of the said complaint case,” her counsel had submitted.
