Controversial Bollywood songwriter Javed Akhtar continues to target three-time national award winner actress Kangana Ranaut and this time, he has filed an intervention application in the Bombay High Court claiming that the actress failed to disclose certain facts while seeking speedy renewal of her passport.

According to the reports, Javed Akhtar, who is fighting a legal battle against the national award-winning actress Kangana Ranaut, has filed yet another petition before the High Court claiming that she had presented misleading statements to the High Court to obtain a favourable order to get her passport renewed. 

Last month, Ranaut also filed an interim application, seeking the court to direct the regional passport authority to renew her passport as she intends to travel to Hungary for a film shoot. In her petition, Kangana Ranaut had alleged that the passport authority was delaying the renewal citing the criminal cases pending against her.

During a hearing on this application on June 28, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the passport authority, had submitted before the High Court that Ranaut’s plea was vague and claimed that she had not clarified regarding the criminal proceedings that were pending against her.

However, the lawyers representing the actress had told the bench led by Justice SS Shinde that there were only two FIRs registered against the actor, but criminal proceedings in these FIRs had not started yet. Following the submissions, the Bombay HC had disposed of the petition after the passport authority gave an assurance that it would decide on her application expeditiously.

Javed Akhtar claims Kangana Ranaut did not mention the defamation case filed against her

A few days after Bombay High Court ruled in favour of Kangana Ranaut, Javed Akhtar filed an intervention application on Friday challenging Kangana Ranaut’s submissions at the Bombay HC.

In his intervention application, Akhtar said he had filed a criminal defamation complaint against Ranaut in November 2020 over her remarks about him during a TV interview, and criminal proceedings against her were pending.

In the plea, Javed Akhtar said that response by Ranaut’s counsel was limited to criminal proceedings arising out of two FIRs and failed to mention about pending criminal defamation case against her filed by him. Hence Akhtar was required to be heard by HC, the petition argued.

The actor had failed to disclose this before the high court as she sought directions from the court, Akhtar said in his petition.

“In spite of knowledge of the criminal case (Akhtar’s complaint) pending before the magistrate’s court, Andheri, the petitioner no 1 (Ranaut) deliberately failed to disclose the same…With an intention to mislead and obtain a favourable order,” Akhtar’s application said.

Interestingly, the intervention petition by Javed Akhtar against Kangana Ranaut’s passport application comes just a few weeks after the actress had accused the Maha Vikas Aghadi government of deliberately delaying her passport renewal.

In an Instagram post, Kangana Ranaut, referring to the Maharashtra government as the “Mahavinashkari government”, had said that she was facing indirect harassment again for voicing her opinion against the Congress-Shiv Sena-NCP led Maharashtra government.

Javed Akhtar’s defamation case against Kangana Ranaut

Last year, Javed Akhtar had filed a defamation case against Kangana Ranaut, stating that the actress had made defamatory statements on national and international television “in what appears to be a clear campaign to malign and tarnish” his reputation.

The lyricist had claimed that the actress had defamed him during an interview in July 2020 following the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Speaking to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, Ranaut had alleged that after her controversy with actor Hrithik Roshan, Akhtar had called her to his house and asked her to apologise to Roshan, warning her that if she did not do so, she would have to commit suicide.

“Javed Akhtar called me to his house, he said if you do not say sorry to Hrithik Roshan you will commit suicide because they will put you in jail. They have found all the clues, all the evidence. They know the case is completely in their hands,” she said.

In another interview given to Republic TV, Ranaut stated that the likes of Javed Akhtar who pretend to be ‘atheists’, in reality, keep an eye on people within the industry to check whether they are pro-Islam or not. She added then that these people ‘filter’ Islam-friendly people in the industry and promote them.