A Mumbai Magistrate court on Monday issued bailable warrant against Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut in a criminal defamation complaint filed by lyricist Javed Akhtar against Ranaut for her statements made in an interview aired by Republic TV with Arnab Goswami.

Ranaut was summoned to appear before the Metropolitan Magistrate RR Khan a month back after a report by the Juhu Police stated that offences alleged against Ranaut by Akhtar were made out for further investigation.

Advocate Rizwan Siddiquee appearing for Ranaut submitted before the Court on Monday that the procedure to examine the witnesses stipulated under Section 200 of the Code of Criminal Procedure had not been followed.

His contention was that since the procedure was not followed properly, the order of issuing process was bad in law and that Ranaut would be challenging the same in the High Court.

Senior Advocate Vrinda Grover along with Advocates Jay K Bharadwaj and Disha Bajaj opposed Siddiquee`s submissions.

They stated that Ranaut had failed to follow the order of this court by failing to appear in Court.

They submitted that neither did Ranaut have a stay on the order issuing process against her, nor has she filed any petition in any higher forum yet.

"It is the accused`s right to appeal against the order, or even challenge the proceedings. That no one can deny, and no one can stop, not even this Court. However she failed to comply with the order of this Court and I do not see any stay obtained from a higher court," Grover argued.

Grover, therefore, sought issuance of non-bailable warrant against Ranaut.

"My Ld. friend (Siddiquee) has not even moved an application for exemption of her (Ranaut) appearance. Hence, I seek to move this application for issuance of warrant," she said.

After hearing both parties briefly, the Court in its detailed order observed that Ranaut has liberty to challenge the proceedings before any higher court. However, since there is no stay order obtained on the process against her, the Court proceeded to issue a bailable warrant against Ranaut with returnable date on March 26, 2021.

The detailed order is awaited.

Akhtar had moved the Magistrate court against Ranaut claiming that her statements amounted to the offence of criminal defamation under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code.

As per Akhtar`s complaint, Ranaut had, during her interview , allegedly commented that Akhtar was part of a "Bollywood suicide gang" who could "get away with anything".

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