The defamation case involving Kangana Ranaut and Javed Akhtar is currently in the magistrate’s court in Andheri. Notably, a sessions court had previously granted a stay on Kangana’s complaint against Javed Akhtar. Javed Akhtar, the lyricist and complainant in this case, argued before the Bombay High Court that Kangana’s recent petition seeking a stay on the proceedings was merely a delaying tactic.
Javed Akhtar strongly urged the high court to dismiss Kangana Ranaut’s petition, asserting that it lacked any substantial basis. Kangana had approached the high court earlier this month, seeking a stay on Javed Akhtar’s criminal defamation complaint filed against her in 2020. In addition, she requested the court to consider her cross-complaint against Javed Akhtar simultaneously.
The defamation case against Kangana Ranaut is currently before the magistrate’s court in Andheri, and the sessions court had previously stayed Kangana’s complaint against Javed Akhtar.
In her plea to the High Court, Kangana Ranaut argued that both cases should be tried together, emphasizing that they originated from a meeting between her and Javed Akhtar in 2016.
However, Javed Akhtar, through his advocate Jay Bharadwaj, submitted an affidavit to the High Court, stating that Kangana had not challenged any order issued by the magistrate’s court. He emphasized that her petition for a stay on the defamation complaint proceedings was merely an attempt to prolong the legal process.
According to the affidavit, Kangana Ranaut “is not challenging any judicial order passed by the lower court but has based the entire writ petition on assumptions and presumptions coupled with an unwarranted optimism of the proceedings pending in courts below.” Javed Akhtar strongly asserted that Kangana’s actions were nothing more than an effort to delay the legal proceedings.
During the hearing of Kangana Ranaut’s plea before a division bench led by Justice Revati Mohite Dere, the High Court clarified that the assignment of hearing such petitions lies with a single bench, not a division bench. The court directed the high court registry to verify this information and place the petition before the appropriate bench for further proceedings.
Javed Akhtar had originally accused Kangana Ranaut of defaming him and tarnishing his “immaculate reputation” by associating his name with actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death during an interview with a news channel in July 2020. In response, Kangana filed a counter-complaint against Javed Akhtar in 2021, alleging criminal intimidation and insult to modesty before a magistrate’s court.
