"You added spice": Supreme Court denies relief to Kangana Ranaut in case over tweet on farmers' protests

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain the petition filed by actor and Member of Parliament (MP) Kangana Ranaut to quash a defamation case pending against her in connection with her controversial tweet about a woman participating in the 2021 farmers' protests. .The Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said,"What do you say about your comments? You added spice. It was not a simple retweet. The interpretation of this tweet can’t be considered in a quashing petition. Your clarification is for the trial court. Not in a quashing petition.".The Court was hearing Ranaut's plea challenging proceedings in the defamation case pending against her before a Bathinda court. In a social media post, Ranaut alleged that an elderly woman protester, Mahinder Kaur, was paid to take part in the agitation. Ranaut in the X post wrote,"Ha ha ha she is the same dadi who featured in Time magazine for being the most powerful Indian…And she is available in 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.".Ranaut's counsel today argued that she had not spoken about Kaur, but a protestor in Shaheen Bagh."The issue is regarding a retweet. The original tweet itself had a lot of retweets by other people. She had spoken about Bilkis Bano or the Shaheen Bagh dadi and nor the respondent," the counsel said, adding that the actor had also issued a clarification but the same was not considered.However, the Court was not convinced and also declined to comment on the contents of Ranaut's tweet."The complaint may be dismissed for inadmissibility of evidence. Don’t ask us to comment on your tweet. It may prejudice your trial. You withdraw this. You want to withdraw?" the Court said.The counsel then chose to withdraw the plea..The complaint pending before the trial court alleges that Ranaut had implied that the elderly woman farmer was fraudulently presented in the media for money. The tweet compared her to another activist and carried derogatory remarks, it said.On February 22, 2022, a Bathinda magistrate issued summons to Ranaut under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code. Challenging this, Ranaut approached the High Court under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking quashing of the proceedings. On August 1, the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed Ranaut’s plea against the summons, holding that the magistrate had applied his mind before issuing summons and that a prima facie case of defamation was made out.