Kangana suppressed facts to get favourable order, Javed Akhtar tells HC

Javed Akhar. Pic/AFP

Lyricist Javed Akhtar on Friday filed an intervention application in the Bombay High Court claiming that actor Kangana Ranaut failed to disclose certain facts in her petition before the court seeking speedy renewal of her passport.

Akhtar sought to intervene in the writ petition filed by the Bollywood actor who has challenged a First Information Report (FIR) filed against her for allegedly infringing upon the copyright of a writer. Last month, Ranaut also filed an interim application, seeking that the regional passport authority be directed to renew her passport to enable her to travel to Budapest, Hungary for a film shoot.

The authority was delaying the renewal citing the criminal cases pending against her, she claimed. On June 28, during a hearing on this application, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the passport authority, told the HC that Ranaut's plea was vague and did not clarify which criminal proceedings were pending against her.

Her lawyer Rizwan Siddiquee told a bench led by Justice S S Shinde that there were only two FIRs registered against the actor but criminal proceedings in these FIRs had not started yet. The first FIRs was registered in October last year by the Bandra police for "promoting religious enmity" through her tweets, he said. The second FIR, registered in March this year, was based on the complaint of the author of the book "Didda: Warrior Queen of Kashmir" who alleged that Ranaut announced a film on the book''s subject without his permission, the lawyer said.

In his intervention application, Akhtar said he filed a criminal defamation complaint against Ranaut in November 2020 over her remarks about him during a TV interview, and criminal proceedings against her were pending. The actor failed to disclose this before the high court, he said. "In spite of knowledge of the criminal case (Akhtar's complaint) pending before the magistrate's court, Andheri, the petitioner no 1 (Ranaut) deliberately failed to disclose the same...with an intention to mislead and obtain a favourable order," Akhtar''s application said.

On June 28, the regional passport office, Mumbai had told the HC that it will decide on Ranaut's passport renewal application expeditiously once she made necessary corrections, following which the court disposed of her interim application. The HC is yet to decide on Akhtar's intervention plea.

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