Kangana Ranaut, actor and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP, has withdrawn her plea from the Supreme Court seeking to quash a criminal defamation complaint against her. The complaint stems from a retweet she made during the 2020-21 farmers’ protests against the now-repealed farm laws.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta showed disinclination to entertain the plea, suggesting that Ranaut pursue alternative remedies before the trial court. This led her counsel to withdraw the petition. Ranaut had previously moved the top court after the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed her plea, ruling that she failed to establish that her allegedly defamatory post was made in good faith.
Justice Mehta expressed reservations about Ranaut’s comments, stating, “What about your comments? It was not a simple retweet. You have added your own comments. You have added spice.” When her counsel stated that Ranaut had issued a clarification, Justice Mehta responded that the clarification could be presented before the trial court.
Ranaut’s counsel also highlighted the difficulty of her traveling to Punjab, to which the bench suggested she could seek an exemption from personal appearance. The bench warned that if the counsel argued further, it might be constrained to make adverse comments that could prejudice her defense in the trial.
The defamation complaint was filed by Mahinder Kaur, a 73-year-old woman from Bathinda, Punjab, in January 2021. Kaur claimed that Ranaut made “false imputations and remarks” against her in a retweet, alleging that she was the same “dadi” (grandmother) who was part of the Shaheen Bagh protest.