Umamageshwari Maruthapan
A Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Mumbai has issued a bailable warrant against Bollywood Actress Kangana Ranaut in an alleged criminal defamation case filed by Lyricist Javed Akhtar.
Earlier, the Magistrate court had issued a summons to Actress Kangana ordering her to appear before the Court on 1sr March 2021. Since the lead actress had failed to appear before the Bench, the Court has issued a bailable warrant.
The matter has been listed for further hearing by the Magistrate Bench of R R Khan.
Ranaut’s Counsel, Advocate Rizwan Siddiquee argued that the procedure to be followed under section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code for examining a witness was not duly followed in this case and therefore the order was bad in law.
Siddiquee further stated that Kangana would be challenging the order before the Bombay High Court.
However, Senior Advocate Vrinda Grover along with Advocates Jay K Bharadwaj and Disha Bajaj were against the contentions of Advocate Siddiquee.
They stated that the actress had failed to comply with the court’s order by refusing to appear before the Bench. Furthermore, no stay order has been passed concerning the Court’s order and she has also not moved any higher court yet, they submitted.
“It is the accused’s right to appeal against the order, or even challenge the proceedings. That no one can deny, and no one can stop, not even this Court. However she failed to comply with the order of this Court and I do not see any stay obtained from a higher court,” Grover argued.
After hearing both the parties, the Court issued a bailable warrant against Kangana while permitting her to move to a higher court challenging the proceedings.
Lyricist Javed Akhtar submitted a petition before the Magistrate Court under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code that Actress Kangana Ranaut had made defamatory remarks against him during an interview with Arnab Goswami, the Editor in Chief of the Republic TV.
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