A Mumbai Court on Tuesday gave a stern warning to Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut that if she fails to appear before it on the next date of hearing on September 20 in in a defamation case filed against her by noted lyricist Javed Akhtar, the Court will be forced to issue an arrest warrant against her.

The court of Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate today granted exemption from appearance to the actor, after her Counsel Rizwan Siddiquee said that she has constantly been travelling and asked to undergo a Covid-19 test as she has developed some symptoms.

Meanwhile, Javed Akhtar reached the court to record his statement a while back. He entered the court premises through the back gate to avoid the media.

Last week, Kangana’s request to cancel the defamation case was rejected by the Bombay High Court. The actor had challenged the defamation proceedings that were initiated by the Magistrate’s court earlier this year, saying that the court had failed to apply its mind to the case.

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Javed Akhtar’s counsel Jay Bharadwaj, however, had told the High Court that the Magistrate had directed for the police inquiry after going through the lyricist’s complaint and excerpts of Ranaut’s interview, in which she had made the alleged defamatory comments. Akhtar had filed the criminal complaint against Ranaut in November last year before the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate for allegedly making defamatory and baseless comments against him in a television interview given to a senior journalist.

In December 2020, the court directed the Juhu police to conduct an inquiry into Akhtar’s complaint against Ranaut and then initiated criminal proceedings against her and issued summons to her in February this year.

Mumbai (ILNS): The Bombay High Court today quashed the order issued by the by BMC on September 9 in the demolition of the office of Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut in Mumbai. The court said that the action of BMC has been done with malicious attitude.

The Court has ordered that the BMC will have to pay damages for sabotage in Kangana Ranaut’s office. The High Court has ordered an assessment of the loss of Kangana’s office. Officers in this regard will submit their report to the court by March 2021. The High Court will later decide on the agency’s report to make up for the loss.

The Division bench of Justices SJ Kaithawala and R I Chagla, while giving the verdict in the case, said that the way this was done was unauthorized. This was an attempt to stop the petitioner from seeking legal help.  The court has also quashed BMC’s notice of illegal construction.

During the hearing, the court said that looking at the case it seems that the demolition action has been taken with the intention of targeting the actress for tweets and statements. The Bombay High Court dismissed the demolition notice in a petition filed by Kangana Ranaut. 

Kangana’s advocate Rizwan Siddique claims that 40 percent of the office was demolished. It also includes many valuable assets including chandeliers, sofas and rare artefacts.

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On September 9 the BMC had vandalized Kangana Ranaut’s office, saying some parts were illegal, against which Kangana approached the court. After this, the court stayed the action being taken by BMC