High court reserves order on Kangana Ranaut's tweet drama
A high court bench reserved the order on July 3 after concluding arguments in the matter. Ranaut, now an MP from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, had filed the petition to quash summons issued by a Bathinda court in 2022 under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The defamation complaint was filed by Mahinder Kau (73) r of Bahadurgarh Jandian village in Bathinda district, alleging that Ranaut had defamed her in a tweet by identifying her wrongly as Bilkis Bano of Shaheen Bagh fame and implying that such women could be hired to protest for Rs 100.
The tweet, which was later deleted, targeted Mahinder Kaur during her participation in the farmers' agitation at Delhi's borders. On Feb 22, 2022, Bathinda judicial magistrate Tanvi Gupta issued initial summons for Ranaut to appear on April 19, 2022. When she did not respond, fresh summons were issued for July 14, 2022, to be delivered via Bathinda SSP.
Before the hearing, Ranaut moved the high court, arguing that the trial court had misapplied Section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Her legal team also claimed she had merely retweeted content posted originally by one "Adhivakta Gautam Yadav", who was not named as an accused in the complaint — raising questions about the complainant's intent. Mahinder Kaur's counsel, Raghbir Singh Behniwal, said the trial court had set July 11 as the next hearing date pending the high court's ruling.
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