SC refuses to censor Kangana’s social media posts

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea filed against actor Kangana Ranaut seeking censoring of all her future social media posts in order to maintain law and order in the country.

A Bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud declined to pass an order on the plea. The plea was filed by advocate Charanjeet Singh Chanderpal who also sought direction to transfer all FIRs against the actor across India to Khar police station in Mumbai, and a charge sheet should be filed in a period of six months along with an expeditious trial within a period of two years.

The advocate said that Ranaut’s remarks and posts on social media “are not only outrageous and blasphemous but also intend to cause riots”.

“The remarks are not only outrageous and blasphemous but also intend to cause riots, hurt religious sentiments, they are defamatory as well as portray Sikhs in a totally anti-National manner. It also justifies the innocent killing of Sikhs. The remarks are totally against the unity of our country and the actress deserves a serious punishment in law. They cannot be brushed aside or excused,” the plea read.

The plea filed through advocate Anil Kumar stated that the Union Home Ministry and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India should be directed by the Court to take certain prohibitions and preventive measures regarding social media posts of Ranaut.

None of her posts on social media should be allowed without amendment, deletion, modification or censoring in order to maintain law and order in the Country, advocate Chanderpal stated in the plea.

In terms of the recent comments made by Ranaut regarding farmers’ agitation vis a vis its irrelevant reference as a ‘Khalistani Arm twisting tactic’, all complaints received and FIRs registered all over India may be sent to the Khar Police Station at Mumbai, it added.

Referring to Ranaut’s social media posts, the plea said that her posts infer that all Sikh farmers are separatist and are aspirants of a separatist state of Khalistan and that the farmer issue was nothing but a Khalistan versus State.

“Such kind of irresponsible statements can spread hatred amongst the Indians resulting in the disunity of the Country,” plea further stated.

“Khalistan issue not at all related to the farmer’s issue and racking up this issue in association with an unrelated topic is only intended to not only gain cheap publicity but also to misrepresent a good number of Sikh Farmer as separatist Khalistani,” said the advocate.

It also stated, “The farmers who had objected to the three Farm Laws and the farmer policy were from all faiths, various states of India and not only from Punjab or only from the Sikh Community.”

Ranaut further attacked directly on the worshipers of the Sikh faith by saying that the Sikh must acknowledge Indira Gandhi as their Guru, lawyer added.