BOMBAY HC TO HEAR KANGANA’S PLEA SEEKING PASSPORT RENEWAL ON 25 JUNE

In the latest development on actress Kangana Ranaut’s plea seeking passport renewal, the Bombay high court on Tuesday refused an urgent hearing on the plea which seeks directions to the authorities to renew her passport, which expires in September. According to the actress, she has to travel to Hungary for the shooting of a film. The renewal has allegedly been denied over a sedition case against her. The court has called the application vague and also said Kangana was not wide awake to mention all details. She also did not cover the authorities as a party. The high court noted Ranaut in her application had sought relief only for herself but her sister’s name Rangoli Chandel was also mentioned as an applicant. The bench accordingly granted advocate Siddiquee the liberty to amend the application and to implement the Passport Authority as a party by the end of the day. The court allowed Kangana Ranaut to amend the application and posted the hearing in the matter on June 25.

The bench dismissed Ranaut’s advocate Siddiquee’s request for an earlier date of hearing. Siddiquee said Ranaut needed to travel out of India for the shooting of her film whose schedule had been fixed for later this week. The HC, however, said June 25 was the earliest date it could assign for the hearing.

“It is just a film. The schedule can be changed. First of all, the application is vague. If she was so vigilant, she could have approached the court with all details in advance. It is just a matter of one week, a film production takes over a year. June 25 is the earliest date we can give,” the judges said.

In her application filed on Monday, Ranaut had said she needed to travel to Budapest this month for the shooting of her upcoming film ‘Dhakkad’ and thus, needed her passport renewed.

The FIR was registered against Ranaut and her sister, Rangoli Chandel, in October 2020 on a magistrate’s order for allegedly creating communal disharmony through their statements and tweets. The Bandra police registered an FIR against Kangana Ranaut and her sister under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc), 295A (deliberate acts hurting religious sentiments), and 124-A (sedition).