The Bombay High Court on Friday granted interim protection to Union Minister Narayan Rane for two weeks in a case pertaining to alleged derogatory remarks he made against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
A Division Bench of Justices P.B. Varale and S.M. Modak was hearing a plea filed by Mr. Rane seeking to quash the FIR over his derogatory remarks against Mr. Thackeray. On August 23, 2021, while addressing a Jan Ashirvad Yatra of the BJP in Raigad district, Mr. Rane said Mr. Thackeray forgot the year of Independence during his August 15 address to the people of the State and had he been present at the spot, he would have slapped him.
On Thursday, the court had said, “Although this is not advisory jurisdiction, petitioner [Mr. Rane] is occupying a responsible position. But certainly words used are not used respectably against another person who is also occupying a respectable position. Why doesn’t the petitioner come forward in court and make a statement that bygones be bygones. Let us decide on being respectful to everyone. Let us not give out a wrong signal to the people.”
The court went on to say, “We are a State of rich heritage. An incident is, one of the senior-most leaders brought a ‘morcha’ to Mantralaya. The then Chief Minister came down from his chamber, and took him for hearing in his chamber. This was our rich heritage.”
The Bench had told advocate Satish Maneshinde representing Mr. Rane, “You are a resident of Maharashtra. The importance of words…”
Mr. Maneshinde said, “Unfortunately words are used by both sides. Once you stop, we stop, let us run the Centre and State together.”
The court had also added, “But let us give a good example to our youngsters. It happens in political life, one adopts one ideology and someone else adopts some other ideology, they have their own liking and disliking. Ultimately… The State of Maharashtra is where we have a rich heritage.”
