The Supreme Court, on Friday, dismissed a petition filed by a lawyer seeking to club all the FIRs registered against Kangana Ranaut across the country over her outbursts against the Sikh community and to censor all her social media posts.
Since October 2020, Ranaut has expressed support via social media for the three Farm Bills that were passed by the Indian parliament during the 2020 monsoon session. The bills were met with strong opposition from farmers, particularly those from Punjab’s Sikh community, who protested for more than a year on the borders of Delhi. Throughout this time, Ranaut also derided the protesting farmers and called them “terrorists,” “Khalistanis” and “anti-social elements.”
Complaints were filed over her social media posts and FIRs were registered in different parts of the country over her tweets.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to repeal the Farm Bills in November 2021, Ranaut, whose Twitter account had been suspended, took to her Instagram page and put out inflammatory posts about the Sikh community and the protesting farmers.
Following this, an FIR was registered against the actor on November 23, 2021 under IPC section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings by insulting a religion) based on a complaint filed by the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) at Mumbai’s Khar Police Station.
On Friday, the Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by lawyer Sardar Charanjeet Singh Chanderpal, who sought for all the FIRs against Ranaut in the matter to be clubbed and investigated by the Khar Police station in Mumbai, with a request for a chargesheet to be filed within six months and the trial to be completed in two years.
The court questioned why Chaderpal, who was neither an accused nor a complainant in the case, was filing such a plea. The court further remarked that if the accused had requested the clubbing of the FIRs, the court might consider it but would not do so “at the behest of a third party.” It also noted that the petitioner had already filed a private complaint on the matter and thus disposed his plea to club the FIRs.
In the same petition, Chaderpal also asked the court to direct the Union Home Ministry, IT Ministry, TRAI and the police authorities of different states to take preventive action on social media against the actor by censoring her posts to maintain law and order in the country.
The court also turned down this plea and said remedies for this are available under the law via the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and it was not for the court to issue such an order.
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To further argument from the petitioner, citing things that Ranaut allegedly said in her social media posts, the court said, “You are doing your cause a disservice by publicising what she has said. The more you publicise it, the more you serve her cause. So please stop repeating.”
The FIRs over her statements against the Sikh community and the protesting farmers are only the latest in a series of complaints and cases Ranaut has been slapped with. Other complaints registered against the actor include two FIRs registered in West Bengal for her tweets in the aftermath of the Legislative Assembly elections in the state, a defamation case filed by lyricist Javed Akhtar, and a complaint registered against the actor and her sister Rangoli Chandel for posting hateful statements against the Muslim community.