Javed Akhtar urges HC to dismiss Kangana Ranaut plea seeking stay on defamation complaint

Mumbai: Lyricist Javed Akhtar has urged the Bombay high court to dismiss a plea filed by actor Kangana Ranaut for a stay on trial in connection with the defamation complaint filed by him.

While responding to the actor's plea, Akhtar said that the petition had been filed with an aim the to delay the said proceedings.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Manjusha A Deshpande directed the court registry to verify whether the matter be heard by a single-judge bench or a division bench.

Akhtar had filed the defamation complaint against Ranaut in 2020.

He alleged that Ranaut made defamatory statements on national and international television, “in what appears to be a clear campaign to malign and tarnish (Akhtar) in the eyes of the general public”.

Akhtar had referred to an interview given by Ranaut after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.