Chandigarh
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday dismissed actress-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut’s plea to cancel a court summons issued in a defamation case. The case was filed over her remarks against an elderly woman farmer during the 2020–21 farm protests.
The complaint was filed by 73-year-old Mahinder Kaur from Bathinda district. She claimed that Kangana wrongly identified her as Bilkis Bano, a protestor from Shaheen Bagh, and accused her of being paid to protest.
Kangana had shared a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) in 2020, retweeting a photo of Kaur and writing: “Ha ha ha, she is the same dadi who featured in Time magazine… And she is available for 100 rupees… We need our own people to speak for us internationally.”
Justice Tribhuvan Singh Dahiya noted that since the petitioner is a public figure, her words carry weight. He said the statements in the retweet were clearly defamatory and had affected the complainant’s dignity and public image.
Kaur said she had no links to the Shaheen Bagh protests and was wrongly targeted. A member of a farming family, she had actively taken part in the farmers' protests at Delhi’s borders. She stated that Kangana’s remarks had caused her mental distress and social humiliation.
The High Court ruled that there was enough evidence to continue the case and said the complaint was not filed with bad intent.
Kangana was summoned by a Bathinda court on February 22, 2022. She challenged the summons in the High Court, claiming the lower court misused legal procedure.