Delhi High Court issue notice to Priya Ramani over MJ Akbar's appeal; next hearing in 2022

On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court issued notice to journalist Priya Ramani over BJP Rajya Sabha MP MJ Akbar's appeal against the trial court's order acquitting her in the criminal defamation case. While Ramani levelled sexual harassment charges against Akbar in the wake of the #MeToo movement, the ex-Union Minister had filed a complaint against her on October 15, 2018, for allegedly defaming him. The case came up for hearing before the single-judge bench of Justice Mukta Gupta.

Appearing for the ex-Union Minister, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar argued, "Case is under (Section) 499 and he (the judge) found that the contents are defamatory. So the minute he returns a finding, nothing further has to be adjudicated. These observations pertaining to sexual harassment are unnecessary."

However, Justice Mukta stated that it was imperative to determine whether the defence taken by Ramani was right if the tweets are defamatory. The trial court's observation- "Court accept contention of accused and possibility of defence of accused that she disclosed the truth regarding sexual ­harassment against her" also came under scrutiny during the hearing. Senior advocate Geeta Luthra asserted that it was not correct to rely on the "possibility of defence". The case was adjourned to January 13, 2022. 

Trial court upholds 'right to dignity'

During the course of the trial in Rouse Avenue Court, senior advocate Geeta Luthra argued for Akbar while senior advocate Rebecca John appeared for Priya Ramani. Assailing the "malicious allegations", Akbar's counsel contended that there was no complaint relating to the incident that purportedly occurred two decades back. On the other hand, Ramani's advocate pointed out that there was no mechanism against sexual harassment back then and stated that the claims were duly proved through her evidence. Accepting that Akbar was not a man of stellar reputation, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar Pandey took note of the systematic abuse at the workplace and the absence of Vishakha guidelines at that time.

Maintaining that a man of high reputation can also be a sexual harasser, he stressed that the "right of reputation can't be protected at the cost of right to dignity". Moreover, he held that a woman has a right to put forth her grievances even after decades. In the key order, the judge also highlighted that society must understand the impact of sexual abuse and harassment on its victims. Quashing the criminal defamation case, he placed reliance on the testimony of Ramani and defence witnesses Niloufer Venkatraman and Ghazala Wahab.

Priya Ramani's allegations

In 2017, Ramani wrote an article in Vogue where she shared an incident from 1993 when she felt intensely uncomfortable after being called to a hotel room by a male boss for a job interview. While the article titled 'To the Harvey Weinsteins of the world' did not name him, she tweeted on October 8, 2018, that the boss in question was MJ Akbar. Denying that such an incident ever took place, Akbar accused her of using language that was "deeply offensive, maligning, in bad faith and a web of fabrication spun out of lies". Amid growing uproar as more than a dozen other women also accused him of sexual harassment, he stepped down as a Union Minister on October 17, 2018.