The Metropolitan Magistrate at Andheri, on Tuesday, July 27, has given a last chance to actress Kangana Ranaut to appear before the Court in the defamation case filed by Lyricist Javed Akhtar and warned that a non-bailable arrest warrant would be issued against her if failed to appear for the next hearing.

Kangana’ pleader told the court that his client was not in the country for which could not attended the hearing on Tuesday, July 27. She sought exemption from her personal appearance, he informed the court.

Advocate, Jay Bharadwaj, appearing for Javed Akhtar, opposed the exemption and sought to issue a non-bailable arrest warrant as she did not appeared to court on any date.

After hearing both sides and due to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) during the pandemic, Magistrate RR Khan permitted her exemption for the day and stated a non-bailable warrant will be served if she failed to attend to next hearing.

Lyricist Akhtar had moved to the court against Kangana claiming that her statements amounted to the offence of criminal defamation under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code. Kangana during her interview to a channel had allegedly commented that Javed Akhtar was part of a “Bollywood suicide gang, who could get away with anything”. This was said during the time when Sushant Singh Rajput case was being investigated by the CBI in 2020.

Kangana had challenged the warrant that has been issued and the issuance of process. However, the Dindoshi sessions court rejected this challenge. Kangana has now challenged the proceeding in the Bombay High Court.