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The Supreme Court today issued notice in a plea by Actor MunMun Dutta seeking clubbing of FIRs filed against her under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for a casteist slur in a video.

The vacation bench comprising Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian issued notice for clubbing of FIRs in the State of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and New Delhi.

Adv Puneet Bali appearing for the Actor submitted that the word “Bhangi” was not used intentionally and was used for someone who takes intoxicants.

The Bench however said that it was not so and perhaps the council was misinformed.

Adv Bali argued that the word was used in West Bengal and Dutta was misinformed of the word so there was no mens rea. He further submitted that she is a woman and had lost her father recently.

On this the bench remarked-“Do women have equal rights or better rights?”

Adv Bali submitted that the intention was lacking and Dutta had apologized after having knowledge of the literal meaning of the words uttered by her.

The case relates to a video where Dutta had used a word which was not taken well by people and several FIRs were registered against her in different states.

However, Dutta later deleted the video and issued an apology stating “This is in reference to a video that I posted yesterday where in one word used by me has been misinterpreted. It was never said with the intent to insult, intimidate, humiliate or hurt anyone’s feelings."

“Because of my language barrier, I was genuinely misinformed about the meaning of the word. Once I was made aware of its meaning, I immediately took the part down. I have utmost respect for every single person from every caste, creed or gender and acknowledge their immense contribution to our society or nation," Dutta added.