Javed Akhtar has sought to intervene in a petition filed in the Bombay high court by Kangana Ranaut for her passport renewal. Although the passport has since been renewed and the actress has already flown out of the country, the writer-lyricist-poet is seeking intervention to call her bluff. According to Akhtar’s intervention application filed in the court, Kangana ought to have disclosed that a defamation complaint had been filed against her by him (Javed Akhtar) as a magistrate had summoned her in that case.
Kangana had told the Bombay high court during the hearing of her plea for permission to renew her passport, in response to a query, that “no criminal cases are pending” against her in any court arising out of two FIRs which she had challenged. The high court had accepted the statement. The actress had moved the high court as the regional passport office had raised queries over two FIRs against her, one allegedly for sedition offence at the Bandra police station, filed by Munawar Ali over her social media posts, and the other at the Khar police station, filed by Ashish Kaul, author of the book, Didda: The Warrior Queen Of Kashmir.
Javed Akhtar said in his intervention application that the HC order records that the Centre’s counsel had said that if Kangana’s counsel “is ready to make a statement that no criminal case is pending against the petitioner… the passport authority is ready to consider the application for passport renewal, in accordance with the Passport Act, rules, procedure expeditiously. He added that the specific query put to Kangana was with regard to “any” criminal cases that may be pending against her and, therefore, she ought to have disclosed the pendency of the case titled ‘Javed Akhtar v. Kangana Ranaut’ pending before the 10th MM court, Andheri, Bombay. On the basis of “false and misleading statement”, the regional passport office renewed her passport on June 29, said the intervention application dated July 1.