'You added spice': SC on Kangana Ranaut's post during farmers' protest; dismisses 'simple retweet' claim

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday told actor-turned-BJP MP Kangana Ranaut that her post "was not a simple retweet" and that she had "added spice" to the existing content. Ranaut withdrew her plea seeking to quash a criminal defamation complaint filed against her over retweets linked to 2020-21 protests against the Centre’s now-repealed farm laws.Ranaut's counsel chose to withdraw the petition after a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta expressed its reluctance to entertain the matter. Counsel also told the bench that the actor had retweeted a tweet.The Supreme Court suggested that Ranaut explore alternative remedies before the trial court instead.The complaint stems from remarks Kangana made in 2020-21, during the farmers' protests. In one of her tweets, she had commented about a woman protester, claiming she was the same "dadi" who had earlier participated in the Shaheen Bagh demonstrations.Complainant Mahinder Kaur, a resident of Bahadurgarh Jandian village in Punjab's Bathinda district, filed the defamation case in January 2021 at a Bathinda court. She alleged that Kangana's remarks were false and defamatory, intended to malign her reputation.Ranaut had earlier approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking to quash the complaint, but her plea was rejected. Her counsel argued that the Bathinda court’s summoning order was not legally sustainable and violated provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code.With the Supreme Court now directing Kangana to seek relief before the trial court, the defamation case will continue to proceed at the lower court level.