New Delhi: Pulling up political commentator Abhijit Iyer Mitra for his social media posts about nine women employees of digital news portal Newslaundry, the Delhi High Court Wednesday said the language used by him was not permissible in any civilised society.
The court was acting on a defamation plea against Mitra that sought a written apology and damages worth Rs 2 crore.
The bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav warned Mitra of criminal action when his lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai argued that the journalists had the recourse of filing a criminal complaint against his client, but no civil claim against him.
However, the court stopped short of passing any such interim order once Dehadrai apologised for Mitra’s choice of words, and agreed that the posts would be taken down in the next five hours.
“The court was prima facie of the opinion that the language used by him (Mitra) is not permissible in a civilised society, and was going to pass an interim order. However, Iyer’s lawyer Dehadrai concedes that his choice of words could have been avoided and has agreed to take down the posts in five hours,” the order said.
At the hearing, Dehadrai initially argued that the language in Mitra’s posts on X may be “filthy” but the legal point was that the aggrieved party could not file a civil claim.
Subsequently, the court remarked: “Have you seen the kind of language used? You seem to be playing with the court over-smartly.”
At this, Dehadrai apologised for the posts, said they were made between February and April this year, and agreed they would be taken down. The matter will next be heard on 26 May.
The journalists of Newslaundry, including executive editor Manisha Pande, by way of their petition before the Delhi High Court, sought to restrain Mitra from making “defamatory, false, malicious and unsubstantiated allegations” through a permanent injunction or court order that requires a person to do or stop doing a specific action.
Apart from this, the journalists sought damages worth Rs 2 crore arguing that Mitra’s posts were unfounded, libellous, misconceived and tainted with ulterior objectives. They alleged that Mitra deliberately and knowingly wished to harm their dignity and reputation.
In their plea, the journalists also said that through their hard work and dedication, they had been trying to build a name for themselves in the industry. But Mitra had through his series of posts on X “falsely and maliciously” labelled them using derogatory terms such as “prostitute”, while calling their workplace a “brothel”.
Not only this, Mitra also posted obscene poems undermining their dignity and launched a scathing attack against Newslaundry’s subscribers while also referring to the portal as “the biggest prostitute”, the journalists stated, adding that this discouraged wide subscription and readership, causing it immense loss of business.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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