Judge acted judiciously, without bias: Court rejects Kangana Ranaut's plea in defamation case

The additional chief metropolitan magistrate court here has held that the Andheri metropolitan magistrate which is presiding over the defamation case filed by lyricist Javed Akhtar against Kangana Ranaut has acted judiciously and did not show any bias against the actorJust because the court proceeds with the case by following the procedure of law it does not mean that it is biased against the applicant additional chief metropolitan magistrate S T Dande said in her order in which she rejected Ranauts plea that sought transfer of the case to some other courtThe additional chief metropolitan magistrate had rejected Ranauts petition on October 21 but its detailed order was made available on SaturdayThe actor had filed the transfer petition last month saying that she had lost faith in the Andheri metropolitan magistrates court as it indirectly ldquothreatenedrdquo her of issuing a warrant if she failed to appear before it in a bailable offence The petition also alleged that the court was biased against herAlso Read Kangana Ranaut reposts Jackie Chans apology after his sons drug scandal and writes Just SayingHowever Dande in her order ruled that the metropolitan magistrate 10th court Andheri has given a fair opportunity to the accused to remain absent by granting all her exemption applicationsI have perused all the orders passed by the Metropolitan Magistrate Andheri He has passed the orders judiciously she saidMoreover the order passed by the Andheri court was confirmed by the Sessions court Further the high court had dismissed Ranauts plea seeking quashing of the criminal defamation proceedings initiated against her by the magistrate the court saidIt shows that Metropolitan Magistrate Andheri has acted judiciously and is not biased against the applicant the CMM court saidMerely because the court proceeds with the case by following the procedure of law it does not mean that court is biased against the applicantaccused it addedIt further held that the case cannot be transferred from one court to another on the basis of mere apprehensionThe court said it was of the view that Ranaut has failed to make out a positive concrete case to show that her apprehension is reasonableUnless some positive concrete case is made out showing that there is reasonable apprehension of not getting a fair trial or fair justice from the concerned court the proceedings cannot be transferred from one court to another on mere vague and general allegations it saidIf on the basis of false allegation the matter is transferred it will affect the morale of the presiding officer it addedThe court ruled that there are no grounds made out for transfer of the case from the metropolitan magistrates court Andheri to any other courtAkhtar 76 had filed the complaint in the Andheri court in November last year claiming that Ranaut had made defamatory statements against him in a television interview which allegedly damaged his reputationIn his complaint Akhtar claimed that Ms Ranaut dragged his name during an interview while referring to a coterie existing in Bollywood following the alleged suicide by actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June last yearRanaut has also moved a counter complaint in the Andheri court against Akhtar for alleged extortion and criminal intimidation before the metropolitan magistrate courtThis 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