The Supreme Court, on Friday, refused to interfere in the order of the Madras High Court directing the release of Tamil filmmaker Leena Manimekalai’s passport, Live Law reported. This is part of the legal battle that Leena has been fighting against filmmaker Susi Ganesan, whom she named as her harasser during the #MeToo movement.
Leena’s passport was impounded in September over a pending defamation case filed against her by Ganesan after she accused him of sexual harassment.
While Ganesan’s first petition to impound her passport was not entertained by the Saidapet Magistrate Court, he 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 course at York University.
It is to be noted that in October, the Sessions and District Court of Chennai had set aside the Saidapet Magistrate Court’s order to impound Leena’s passport. However, Ganesan had appealed to quash this order of the Sessions Court.
In November, the Madras HC had observed that Leena’s passport could not be impounded on the mere basis of a criminal defamation case being pending against her. And in early December, the High Court had quashed the passport impoundment and directed the Regional Passport Officer to release Leena’s passport within one week of the court order’s receipt.
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However, Ganesan filed a special leave petition against the Madras HC order at the Supreme Court.
At the hearing of this petition on Friday, Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari refused to interfere in the HC order to release Leena’s passport.
The apex court also directed the Magistrate Court in Chennai to complete the pending trial in the defamation case as expeditiously as possible, preferably within four months. The SC further observed that Leena’s personal presence at the trial was not necessary and ordered the trial court to issue summons if it thinks that her presence is needed.