A defamation case over an article published by a leading news magazine on Veer Savarkar has moved forward after SJ Biyani, the additional chief metropolitan magistrate at Mumbai's Bhoiwada court, ordered the defendants in the case to be present in court. The criminal complaint, filed by Savarkar's grandnephew Ranjit Savarkar, invokes the sections 34, 500, 501 and 502 of the Indian Penal Code against the writer of the article as well as the editor and publisher of the magazine.

The saga began a year go, when the weekly magazine published an article questioned whether Savarkar deserved a Bharat Ratna. The article came during a time when there was a raging public debate on if the legendary freedom fighter should be conferred with India's highest civilian honour. Following the publication of the article, Ranjit Savarkar, the grandson of Savarkar's younger brother, filed the defamation case.