A Mumbai court Tuesday issued a bailable warrant against Marxist leader Harkishen Singh Surjeet in a defamation case filed by actor Anupam Kher.

Rejecting the veteran politician's plea for personal exemption on health grounds, Metropolitan Magistrate C.B. Havelikar issued the warrant against him for not being present despite summons issued to him.

The court also told Surjeet to give a surety of Rs.10,000 in lieu of the warrant issued against him and asked him to appear in the court in person. Kher filed a case against Surjeet for branding him an "RSS man" in the party's publication People's Democracy.

Kher was shortly thereafter removed as the Central Board of Film Certification chairman.