New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday adjourned an appeal filed by former Union minister and journalist M.J. Akbar against a trial court order that acquitted journalist Priya Ramani in the defamation suit filed by the former, after she had accused him of sexual harassment.
“This is not a special category matter. There are far more important matters…There is no urgency,” the Indian Express quoted Justice Mukta Gupta as saying, while adjourning the case to August 11.
After she levelled sexual harassment allegations against him, Akbar had filed a defamation case against Ramani in 2018. The trial court had acquitted Ramani in the case on February 17.
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While acquitting Ramani in the case, the court had ruled that Ramani “cannot be punished for raising her voice against sexual assault” and that she “has the right to put her grievance at any platform even after a decade”.
Observing that “even a man of social status can be a sexual harasser”, the judge also said that a woman has the right to put her grievance before any platform of her choice – even after decades.
In the 91-page verdict, the court observed that a person’s “right of reputation can’t be protected at the cost of right to dignity”.
Akbar, in his criminal defamation suit, had accused Ramani of damaging his reputation with tweets and articles. Ramani had spoken of her experience of being harassed by Akbar, then an editor of a daily, as a young job aspirant. Ramani going public with her experiences during the #MeToo campaign had given it significant impetus.
Her acquittal in the defamation case has been hailed as a big victory for the movement in India.