In one of the most unusual day in the Bombay High Court, the Maharashtra state government actually opposed a write that sought to suspend Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut's Twitter profile permanently. A petition filed by Advocate Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh said that the actress and her sister Rangoli Chandel were working to spread hatred, incite hatred against communities and state machinery through Twitter. Therefore their Twitter account should be suspended permanently.
A division bench of Justice S S Shinde and Justice M S Karnik was hearing a criminal writ plea filed by Mumbai-based lawyer. Additional Public Prosecutor J P Yagnik opposed the plea and termed the demands made in the petition as ambiguous and sought to dismiss it. During the court hearing, the judges asked whether the petition was a PIL.
On the refusal by Deshmukh, the judge said, 'Then how can we take action in a criminal case based on claims made by a third party which is not personally affected in any way? If it is not a public interest litigation, then you have to show personal damage to how it is affecting you.'
On this, the Additional Public Prosecutor Yagnik argued that the petition did not mention how the tweet referred to by the petitioner affected the public. He said, 'This is a very vague petition. Twitter is an international organization. Nobody can make vague demands like this. ' Yagnik said that this argument is not correct and should be disposed of.
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Advocate Deshmukh said during the hearing that he had in the past written a letter to police and Maharashtra officials demanding action against Ranaut and his sister. Deshmukh said, 'Many FIRs are pending against Kangana. In the past, she has misused the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput for her own benefit and now she is doing the same with the opposition of the farmers.