Kangana Ranaut, the Hindi actor, has moved the Bombay High Court seeking renewal of her passport after the Passport Authority of India allegedly raised objections to issue the renewal due to the First Information Report registered against her by the Bandra police for hateful tweets and sedition, Bar and Bench reported.
Ranaut claimed in her plea that as her passport would be expiring in September 2021, she had applied for the renewal of her passport but the Passport Authority of India raised objections based on the FIR registered against her.
The objection from the Passport Authority of India was said to be oral and Ranaut failed to submit any written evidence of the objection. The matter has been adjourned to June 25.
Claiming that as an actor, she has to travel both inside the country as well as to international locations as a part of her professional commitments, Ranaut submitted in the court that she has a shooting scheduled for an upcoming film for which she has to travel to Budapest from June 15 to August 30.
Her plea also cited the huge monetary investments made by the production houses in booking such shooting locations and stated that as a lead actor in the film, her presence is essential.
The actor also sought confirmation that the magistrate’s order and the FIR would not intervene in her right to get the passport renewed.
Among the numerous complaints filed against Ranaut in 2020 for her tweets and comments on issues such as nepotism in the Hindi film industry and the ongoing farmers’ protest in the country, one was filed by a fitness instructor and casting director Munnawarali Sayyed with the Bandra Police in Mumbai.
Sayyed filed the complaint, in October, against Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel for allegedly trying to incite communal violence between Hindus and Muslims through their tweets and interviews.
Sayyed had pointed to the actor’s comments comparing Mumbai to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and her remarks on the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput case.
Following a Mumbai court’s order, the Bandra police had registered an FIR against the sisters for offences punishable under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different religious groups), 295A (maliciously outraging religious feelings), 124A (sedition) read with 34 (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
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In January 2021, Ranaut and her sister had moved the Bombay High Court urging the court to quash the FIR against them, denying the sedition charges and saying that none of their tweets ever incited violence or led to any criminal acts.
Other complaints registered against the actor include a couple of FIRs registered in Karnataka for her tweets calling the protesting farmers “terrorists”, two complaints registered in West Bengal for her tweets on the aftermath of the Legislative Assembly elections in the state, and a defamation case filed by lyricist Javed Akhtar.
Ranaut’s tweets are unavailable at the moment. Following the repeated hateful tweets by Ranaut, recently, Twitter has permanently suspended her account from the platform.