Kangana Ranaut Skips Javed Akhtar Defamation Case Hearings, Says She Is Busy

Kangana Ranaut Skips Javed Akhtar Defamation Case: Actor Kangana Ranaut on Friday has sought permanent exemption from personal appearance before the Andheri magistrate court during the hearing of the criminal defamation.

The case was filed against her by veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar. The plea stated that the actor cannot make it for the hearing because she was  busy.

#KanganaRanaut has moved an application seeking permanent exemption from appearance before the Bandra Magistrate Court in the criminal defamation complaint filed by #JavedAkhtar for Ranaut’s statements made during interview with #ArnabGoswami. @Javedakhtarjadu pic.twitter.com/byusG8VtJW

— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) June 25, 2021

Ranaut, who is prepping to don the director's hat for her upcoming project titled Emergency, based on former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s life, in her application stated that she is busy with work, and therefore, cannot physically attend the hearing. Akhtar's lawyer, however, opposed the application but the Mumbai court decided to allow her plea due to the pandemic rules.

Ranaut's application also describes her as "one of the top-most actresses of the Hindi film industry" who has won "several prestigious awards including National Awards, and has also been honoured with Padma Shri, fourth-highest civilian award in India." Therefore, "by virtue of being an actress", the plea claims, she needs to travel to different parts of the country and even to international locations for professional commitments. The Queen actor in her application has emphasised that "attending the dates of trial on regular basis will require her to travel miles from different work locations to Mumbai, thereby causing undue hardships," India Today reported. She also showcased facts of how her professional commitments might suffer and stressed that the production houses may incur huge financial losses.

She has promised that her non-appearance "shall not come in the way of the proceedings with trial and she will appear through her advocate."

Earlier, Ranaut had approached the Dindoshi sessions court, Mumbai challenging the proceedings before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Andheri in the case. That plea was dismissed on April 5, 2021. It was on March 1 this year that Ranaut had been summoned to answer to the charge of offence under Section 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code. In his complaint, Akhtar alleged that the actor made “baseless allegations” against him in multiple media interviews which caused damage to his reputation that he has built from scratch in the last 55 years. Read more here.

The next date of hearing in the matter is on July 27, 2021.

Feature Image Credit: INE/Kalam Times