No immediate relief for Javed Akhtar, Kangana Ranaut to oppose his revision plea

The Mumbai Sessions Court at Dindoshi has declined to grant an immediate interim stay on the proceedings in the case filed by actor Kangana Ranaut against Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar. The court stated that it will need to hear arguments from both sides on the merits of the case before making a decision on the stay.

Akhtar's plea, filed through advocate Jay Bharadwaj, challenged the order of issuance of process against him by the Andheri Magistrate Court on Kangana Ranaut's complaint, arguing that there was a "lack of application of judicial mind."

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During the hearing, Advocates Vrinda Grover and Bharadwaj requested an interim stay on the proceedings. However, Ranaut's lawyer, Rizwan Siddiquee, opposed the request, asserting that he could demonstrate the case's lack of merit in just five minutes.

Judge AZ Khan, while acknowledging the request for a stay, expressed the need to hear arguments from both parties before making a decision. Due to the judge's busy schedule, he set a date for the arguments to be presented briefly on August 24.

The complaint in question was filed by Kangana Ranaut against Javed Akhtar regarding a meeting that took place between them in March 2016. The Andheri Magistrate court issued a summons to Akhtar on August 1, after which he was required to appear before the court on August 5, but could not due to travel commitments.

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The history of the case dates back to 2016 when Kangana Ranaut and actor Hrithik Roshan were involved in a controversy over exchanged emails, resulting in a public dispute. Javed Akhtar, being close to the Roshans, arranged a meeting with Ranaut and requested her to apologise to Roshan. Following the meeting, Ranaut accused Akhtar of trying to "extort" an apology from her.

In 2021, during a televised interview, Kangana Ranaut described the 2016 meeting which Akhtar found defamatory, leading him to approach the court against her.

In response to Akhtar's defamation complaint, the actor filed her own complaint, leading the court to issue process against Akhtar under Sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

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