Bollywood / Kangana has right to express her thoughts on Twitter: Bombay HC

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court while hearing a criminal writ plea on Monday against actor Kangana Ranaut for her alleged offensive tweets, observed that the actor has the right to have a Twitter account and express her thoughts.

The Bombay HC also asked the petitioner Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh to show how Kangana's tweets have caused him personal injury or breached his fundamental rights.

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, "This petition needs to be converted into a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), otherwise many people will read newspapers and start coming to the court stating they are hurt. Constitutional right and constitutional remedy are different. This is a vague petition." 

Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh told the court, "I am a Maharashtrian, Mumbaikar and she calls the court Pappu Sena. This hurts me and that is a personal injury."

The petitioner alleged that the 'Panga' actor has been spreading animosity between communities and has been hurting his religion through her tweets.

Justice Shinde then 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."

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

Kangana has been at loggerheads with the Maharastra's Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena for a while now. Earlier, the Bombay High Court had also criticised the Shiv Sena-led BMC for the way her office in Khar was demolished citing illegal construction.