‘Don’t try to prejudice court’s mind’: SC refuses plea seeking censorship of Kangana Ranaut’s posts

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea seeking censorship of actress Kangana Ranauts all future statements on social media clubbing multiple FIRs lodged against her for remarks against the Sikh community and investigation by Mumbai policeIt asked the petitioner either to ignore the utterances made by her or avail remedy under lawThe top court also said that the petitioner a member of the Sikh Community as a public cannot seek clubbing of multiple FIRs and only the accused or informant can seek such remedyA bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Bela Trivedi told petitioner Sardar Charanjeet Singh Chanderpal an advocate appearing in person that remedy which he was seeking cannot be granted under Article 32 petition and he has to pursue relief under the criminal lawldquoThere are two possible solutions Either you ignore the utterances made by her or avail remedy under law We respect the community We respect your faith By speaking these utterances you are doing more disservice to the cause Dont try to prejudice the mind of the court Dont politicise it We have read these utterances in your file You dont need to speak uprdquo the bench told Chanderpal when he tried to read the remarks which Ranaut had made on social mediaChanderpal said that he has filed an intervention application in the FIR quashing petition of Ranaut and is pursuing itThe bench then ordered ldquoAs regards to first relief is concerned the petitionerinperson states that he has already adopted proceedings for the purpose of availing of his remedies in accordance with law by instituting a private complaint In view of the invocation of the remedy by the petitioner in person we therefore request this court to treat the petition in so far prayer A censoring social media posts is concerned as being disposed of without being expressed any opinion by this court at the present stagerdquoChanderpal said that the actress is going on and on with her ldquooutrageousrdquo and defamatory statements that ldquoSikh Farmers were Khalistani Terroristsrdquo and tried to portray the community as ldquoantinationalrdquoThe bench told him ldquoDont you think that common Indian citizens understand this and know the differencesrdquoJustice Chandrachud said ldquoFor every wrong there is a remedy available under the law You are a practicing lawyer in Bombay High Court You have appeared so many times before merdquoAt the outset the bench told Chanderpal that being a member of the bar how can he seek transfer of FIRs against the actressTo which he replied that he is a Sikh and can a person be permitted to be so reckless and make utterances in such a manner against a particular communityldquoWhen we go to Gurudwara when we go sit with the people we see there are so many complaints We are guided by our Guru and not by any human being I am in tears the way she said thisrdquo he saidChanderpal told the bench that he was at the Singhu border where Sikh farmers were protesting against the three now repealed farm laws and there is nothing about any Khalistani thereJustice Chandrachud said ldquoPlease be rest assured that we do not subscribe to any suchiquestyou have to seek remedies under the law and not under Article 32 petition You withdraw this petitionrdquoChanderpal said that he cannot just withdraw the petition her Ranaut statements are such that it is casting aspersions on the Sikh communityThe bench said ldquoMr Charanjeet we have also treaded with great caution We have not said anything about those tweets or those statements Because thats the matter of investigation which is going onrdquoThe top court lastly ordered that as regard prayer B which was for directions for clubbing of all FIRs which may have been lodged against in respect of the statements be transferred to Khar police station of Mumbai is not pressedThis 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