Earlier, the court had issued bailable warrants against Khan for not remaining present before the court, he said. Bajpayee stated in an application that Khan was aware of the case against him but was not appearing intentionally to cause delay. Khan’s lawyer submitted that the action against him should be stayed as he has moved the Supreme Court.
On December 13, 2022, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had dismissed Khan’s plea seeking that the defamation case against him be quashed. Khan’s lawyers had claimed in the High Court that one of the Twitter handles ‘KRK box office’, from which a tweet in question was posted in 2021, had been “sold” to one Saleem Ahmed in October 2020. He had never intentionally tweeted anything against Bajpayee, his lawyers had said.