The Bombay High Court rejected a petition by actor Kangana Ranaut seeking a stay on trial arising from a defamation complaint filed against her by lyricist Javed Akhtar. Bombay HC dismissed a writ petition filed by Kangana in the defamation case filed by Javed in 2020. She had also sought for the case to be clubbed with the cross-compliant, which she subsequently filed against him.
According to a media report, Justice Prakash Naik passed the order and held that the proceedings could not be stayed or clubbed since Kangana had never contended that the cases were cross-cases. Notwithstanding the same, Javed Akhtar’s complaint was filed first. He was quoted in the report as saying, “At this stage the relief sought in the petition cannot be granted. Earlier it was never contended by the petitioner (Kangana) that both cases are cross cases.”
While Akhtar’s defamation case against the actress is ongoing before the Magistrate, Kangana’s complaint against him was stayed by the Sessions Court. In her writ petition, the actor had said that both cases had their genesis in a meeting in 2016, therefore they should be tried together.
In 2020, Javed filed a complaint against Kangana after she had accused him of threatening her in an interview after calling her to his home amid her ugly fight with actor Hrithik Roshan over their alleged affair. She had then filed a counter-complaint against Javed for alleged “extortion and criminal intimidation.” She said in her complaint that following her public dispute with her ‘Krrish 3’ co-star, Hrithik, the lyricist had called her and her sister Rangoon to his house with “malafide intentions and ulterior motives and then criminally intimidated and threatened” her.
