Kangana Ranaut Has The Right To Have A Twitter Account And Express Her Thoughts: Bombay HC To Petitioner

On Monday (December 21, 2020), the Bombay High Court while hearing a criminal writ petition by a lawyer who wanted Kangana Ranaut's Twitter account blocked for her alleged offensive tweets, said that the actress has the right to express her thoughts on her Twitter page.

The petitioner Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh had alleged that Kangana has been spreading communal hate and hurting his religion through her tweets.

The Bombay HC asked him to show how Kangana's tweets have caused him personal injury or breached his fundamental rights. To which, Deshmukh said that he is a Maharashtra Mumbaikar and Kangana calling the court Pappu Sena is a personal injury to him.

According to a report in India Today, a division bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik asked the Maharashtra government's lawyer, Jayesh Yagnik, who said, "This petition needs to be converted into a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), otherwise many people will read newspapers and start coming to the court. Constitutional right and constitutional remedy are different. This is a vague petition."

A report in India Today stated that Justice Shinde told the petitioner, "Any individual can have this account. She also has the fundamental right to have an account to express her thoughts. So, you have to show how your fundamental rights are breached. Unless the case comes under the reasonable restrictions, can we accede to your request? If you have to judge what will you do?"

The petitioner said, "Free speech and hate speech are different. In my petition, there are multiple examples of how she has hurt many feelings. There are many cases filed in various courts against her. There is a personal mental injury that I have suffered through her tweets."

On this, Justice Shinde said, "That is different. Word against word, how can we go into this issue? You think over that. We are not in a hurry to dismiss your petition. Take your time. We don't want to discourage a young lawyer like you. Go through your points and make fresh arguments. On the next date, we will bring an end to this."

The court will now hear Deshmukh's petition on January 7, 2021.

Ever since Kangana Ranaut joined Twitter, the actress has been constantly grabbing eyeballs for her controversial tweets on various topics. In response to those who advise her to remain silent on Twitter, Kangana had tweeted, "All the fans who keep checking my tweets all day and keep declaring they are bored/tired and ask me to stay quiet should Mute/unfollow or Block me, if you don't then you are clearly obsessed. Don't love me like a hater but if you don't know any better then go for it. Love."

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