Leena Manimekalai has finally received a favourable verdict in her passport impoundment case, one of the legal battles she has been fighting after naming filmmaker Susi Ganesan as her harasser during the #MeToo movement.
The Sessions and District Court of Chennai on Wednesday set aside the Saidapet Magistrate Court’s order to impound the passport of the filmmaker-poet, her advocate Senthil Kumar told Silverscreen India. The order means that, legally, Leena’s passport cannot be impounded, the lawyer explained.
The Sessions Court heard the case on Wednesday after Leena filed a petition challenging the Saidapet Magistrate’s order to impound her passport.
“Shout out to every soul who lent their shoulders, voice, love and financial support. Today at the District Court, Judge set aside the Magistrate’s orders to impound my passport. Much love and gratitude to my brilliant lawyers Abudu and Senthil,” Leena tweeted.
Leena, who has also been slapped with a defamation case by Ganesan after she named him as her harasser, got her passport impounded based on his petition. While Ganesan’s first petition in this matter was not entertained by the Saidapet Magistrate Court, Ganesan moved the court yet again and Leena’s passport was impounded early in September, just as she was set to travel to Canada to pursue the last leg of her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Films at York University.
Speaking to Silverscreen India about the Wednesday hearing at the Sessions Court, Senthil Kumar said, “In today’s hearing, two things came up. One, we have legally questioned the Saidapet Magistrate’s order to impound the passport. Two, we have requested to transfer the defamation case that is pending at the Magistrate court to another court, citing that it is biased. The opposition side has denied this and has filed a counter petition.”
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Senthil added that the argument for the second point has been adjourned to October 27.
It is to be noted that Leena has been fighting three different cases against Ganesan. The first of these is the main defamation case filed by him at the Saidapet Magistrate Court, while the second at the Sessions Court challenges what she terms the Magistrate’s “biased orders” in that case. The third was her writ petition at the Madras High Court against the Passport Officer.