The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave film star Govinda two weeks’ time to meet Santosh Bateshwar Ray to apologise to him and settle the dispute over an alleged slapping incident in 2009.
Govinda’s lawyer Sangeeta Kumar told a bench of Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit that the star would meet Ray to settle the dispute outside the court.
The court had on November 30, 2015, asked Govinda to settle the dispute with Ray with an apology.
The court gave Govinda two weeks’ time as counsel Jatin Zaveri, appearing for Ray, said that the actor had not complied with the November 30 order.
During the November 30 hearing, the court told Govinda: “You are a big hero, show your big heart [and apologise].”
The court on Tuesday again asked Govinda to settle the matter out of court after the hearing of a petition by Ray.
Ray had challenged the Bombay High Court order quashing his complaint, which they said had no material supporting his allegation of criminal intimidation by the veteran star.
The court on November 30 asked Govinda to apologise after they viewed a video of the alleged incident. After watching the video, the court told Govinda’s counsel that such acts in public places would not be appreciated.
The matter relates to February 2, 2009, when Ray lodged a complaint against Govinda accusing him causing hurt, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace and criminal intimidation.
Ray’s complaint before the magistrate’s court was quashed by the high court in 2013. It was against this order that Ray went to the apex court.
The high court had observed: “No doubt some incident had occurred. However, there is no material to prove criminal intimidation. It appears that the complainant was instigated to file the complaint after a year.”
