The Supreme Court on Friday turned down a plea from actress-turned-BJP MP Kangana Ranaut, who wanted to challenge a defamation case against her. The top court refused to quash a summoning order from a Bathinda court, leaving Kangana to face the trial.
The trouble started with a social media post on X (formerly Twitter) in 2022. Mahinder Kaur, a 73-year-old farmer from Bahadurgarh Jandian village in Bathinda, Punjab, filed the defamation complaint. She accused Kangana of wrongly labeling her as a Shaheen Bagh protester and linking her to the Bilkis Bano case. In the post, Kangana suggested that women like her could be “hired” for protests for just Rs 100. The post, which Kangana later deleted, mocked Kaur’s role in the farmers’ agitation at Delhi’s borders.
Kaur, from a simple farming family, said the comments shattered her pride and reputation among fellow protesters. She stressed she had no ties to the Shaheen Bagh protests or the Time magazine feature Kangana referenced. The remarks left her humiliated and caused deep mental distress, she added.
Kangana had retweeted a post by Gautam Yadav with Kaur’s photo, adding her own sarcastic note: “Ha ha ha, she is the same dadi who featured in Time magazine for being the most powerful Indian… And she is available for 100 rupees. Pakistani jurno’s have hijacked international PR for India in an embarrassing way. We need our own people to speak for us internationally.” Kaur called these claims completely false.
Back in February 2022, a Bathinda judicial magistrate issued the summons, asking Kangana to appear in court. Unhappy with this, Kangana approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court. She argued the lower court misused Section 202 of the CrPC. But Justice Tribhuvan Singh Dahiya dismissed her petition after a detailed hearing, finding no grounds to cancel the order.
Kangana then took the matter to the Supreme Court with a special leave petition (SLP). During the hearing, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta made it clear they wouldn’t interfere. “It was not a simple retweet. The interpretation of this tweet cannot be considered in a quashing petition. Your clarification is for the trial court, not here,” the bench said. Justice Nath even warned: “Don’t ask us to comment on your tweet. It may prejudice your trial. You want to withdraw?”
Seeing the court’s stance, Kangana’s lawyer decided to withdraw the SLP right there. Now, the defamation case will move forward in the Bathinda court, where Kangana will have to respond to the charges. This episode highlights the growing scrutiny on social media posts by public figures and their impact on ordinary people like Mahinder Kaur.
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