Defamation case: No material to show magistrate acted without fairness, says court on Kangana's transfer plea

A sessions court here while rejecting Bollywood actor Kangana Ranauts plea seeking transfer of the defamation case against her has held that there was no material to indicate that the metropolitan magistrate had acted without fairness or had any biases against herThe actor had filed a plea seeking that a criminal defamation case filed against her by lyricist Javed Akhtar be transferred from the Andheri metropolitan magistrate to any other courtThe sessions court also refused to transfer her crosscomplaint filed against Akhtar before the Andheri courtBoth pleas filed by Ranaut were rejected by the second additional principal and sessions judge Dindoshi S S Oza on March 9 The detailed order was available on ThursdayWhile rejecting the plea the court held that the apprehension of not getting a fair and impartial inquiry or trial is required to be reasonable and not imaginary based upon conjectures and surmisesrdquoldquoIf it appears that the dispensation of criminal justice is not possible impartially and objectively and without any bias before any court the court may transfer the case to another court where it feels that holding of a fair and proper trial is conduciverdquo it saidThe court observed that a mere allegation that there is apprehension that justice will not be done in the given case alone does not sufficeThe judge in his order noted that in absence of any material demonstrating the apprehension that justice will not be done without any bias such application for transfer cannot be entertainedldquoThere is no material to conclude that the metropolitan magistrate was dealing with the matter without fairness and had any biases biases against the applicant Kangana Therefore in my considered opinion the applicant has not made out a case under section 408 of CrPC to transfer both the casesrdquo it saidRanaut in her plea had alleged that the 10th Metropolitan Magistrates Court Andheri had shown ldquobias and prejudice towards herrdquo by not granting her permanent exemption and threatened to issue an ldquoarrest warrantrdquo for a ldquobailable and noncognizable offencerdquoIn October last year the chief metropolitan magistrate CMM had rejected a similar plea by the actor who later challenged the order before the sessions court However her revision petition was also rejectedHer latest plea was filed under section 408 of the CrPC which provides power to a sessions judge to transfer cases and appealsAkhtar 76 had filed a complaint in the court in November 2020 claiming that Ranaut had made defamatory statements against him in a television interview which allegedly damaged his reputationThe complaint is being heard by the metropolitan magistrate court AndheriThe lyricist has claimed that Ranaut had dragged his name during an interview while referring to a coterie existing in Bollywood after the alleged suicide by actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June last yearRanaut also moved a countercomplaint in the Andheri court against Akhtar for alleged extortion and criminal intimidation before the metropolitan magistrate courtIn her complaint against Akhtar the actor alleged that following her public dispute with her costar the lyricist had called her and her sister Rangoli Chandel to his house with malafide intentions and ulterior motives and then criminally intimidated and threatened herThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever