Salman Khan (Photo: AP)

Id celebrations notwithstanding, the State Women’s Commission has asked actor Salman Khan to appear before it over his “rape” remark and said it will not issue a fresh date in the matter.

The commission had, on June 29, issued summons to Khan asking him to appear before it on July 7, which happens to be Id, to explain his position over failing to turn up earlier.

“It’s a normal working day for us and our team will be discharging its routine duties. Therefore, we are not going to issue a fresh date to Salman Khan and our commission will wait for his response,” Commission chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar said.

“Personally, he (Khan) may or may not appear for hearing which our body understands. But he can definitely respond to our summons by sending his representative at least. It’s upto him. But he ought to react in some way or the other,” she said.

A day before the Commission issued summons to Khan last week, the actor had sent a letter to the panel, through his lawyer, stating that the case was already being heard by the National Commission for Women (NCW) and the matter couldn’t be heard simultaneously at two places. After considering his response, the panel had expressed dissatisfaction over the actor’s argument and summoned him to appear before it on July 7.

“On June 29, when our commission issued notice to the actor, we did not anticipate that the date of July 7 hearing would clash with Id. But, since our commission is working tomorrow, we are not going to issue a fresh date,” Ms Rahatkar said.

Khan, in one of his interviews for the promotion of recently released movie Sultan had said that he “felt like a raped woman” when shooting for a fight scene. The film centres around the sport of wrestling. The comment drew flak from all sections of society, with the National Commission for Women demanding an apology for the same within seven days. Salim Khan, Khan’s father and well-known film writer, immediately apologised on behalf of his son on Twitter. However, Khan has not reacted to the controversy surrounding the remark.