Farmers Movement Archive

‘You are serving her cause’: Supreme Court’s advice on plea against Kangana Ranaut

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to order clubbing of all criminal cases pending against actor Kangana Ranaut over her offensive social media posts against the Sikh community.Stating that “we respect the beliefs and sensitivities of the religious community”, a bench of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Bela M Trivedi said, “For every criminal wrong, there is a remedy under criminal law. We should be circumspect in jumping in under Article 32 which gives us wide powers. The wider the power is, the greater the responsibility.”The court was hearing a petition filed by Mumbai-based lawyer Sardar Charanjit Singh Chanderpal who vented his anger over the tweets by Kangana which, he said, sought to portray Sikhs as “Khalistanis” for taking part in the stir against the now-repealed farm laws.“How can a person go on and on ranting against a community. Can a person be permitted to be so reckless that she says that we should adopt Indira Gandhi (former Prime Minister) as our guru as she crushed us like mosquitoes,” Charanjit said.The bench said, “The more you publicize, the more you cause damage to yourself. You are serving her cause by publicizing her statements….One way to deal with it is to ignore, that we are not advising you. You have a remedy under law.”The petitioner, who appeared in person, told the court that he has already instituted a complaint against the actor in a lower court and filed an application to oppose her petition in the Bombay high court for quashing one of the cases lodged against her. He informed the court that other cases have also been lodged against Kangana Ranaut in other states which he was seeking to transfer to Khar police station in Mumbai.The bench refrained from expressing any opinion on clubbing of FIRs as the petitioner chose to withdraw this prayer. However, the court observed, “Rest assured, we do not subscribe to these statements. You can withdraw this petition with permission to pursue your legal remedies…We have tread with great caution on the tweets (by Ranaut) as that is still a matter of investigation.”There is a case registered against Kangana Ranaut in Mumbai’s Khar police station accusing her of outraging religious feeling feelings of Sikhs punishable under section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Separate FIRs have also been registered by Maninder Singh Sirsa, the president of Delhi Gurdwara Management Committee (DGMC), Amarjeet Singh Sandhu of Dadar’s Shri Guru Singh Sabha Gurudwara, and Jaspal Singh Siddhu, the president of the Supreme Council Navi Mumbai Gurudwara.

Hindustan Times

22-01-2022

India