Far More Important Matters, No Urgency: Delhi HC Adjourns MJ Akbar’s Appeal In Priya Ramani Case

The appeal filed by Akbar was against a trial court order acquitting journalist Priya Ramani on February 17 in a defamation case filed by him after she accused him of sexual harassment.

The Delhi High Court today adjourned an appeal filed by former Union Cabinet Minister MJ Akbar in the Priya Ramani verdict. Justice Mukta Gupta while adjourning the case to August 11 said “there are far more important matters… There is no urgency,”

The appeal filed by Akbar was against a trial court order acquitting journalist Priya Ramani on February 17 in a defamation case filed by him after she accused him of sexual harassment. Ramani levelled charges against the former Union Minister through a tweet in 2018 in the wake of the #MeToo movement that gained momentum in India.

In her complaint, while narrating the incident that took place in 1993 she said, “I was 23 when the complainant (M.J. Akbar), the editor of the soon-to-be-launched Asian Age newspaper called me to his hotel for a job interview. When I got there I expected the interview to be in the lobby or the coffee shop, but Akbar insisted that I come up to his room. I was young, it was my first job interview, I did not know that I could refuse, I did not know that I could set the terms of my interview.”

Priya Ramani added, “When I reached his room, it was an intimate space essentially his bedroom and I was deeply uncomfortable and felt unsafe at Mr Akbar’s repeated inappropriate personal questions, his offer of an alcoholic beverage, his loud singing of songs and his invitation to sit close to him. Later that night, I called my friend Nilofer Venkatrama and told her what had happened.”

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After Ramani’s statement, nearly 20 other women also shared accounts of sexual harassment at Akbar’s hands and supported the claim made by her.

MJ Akbar, in the criminal defamation case against Ramani, had accused her of damaging his “stellar reputation” by way of tweets and articles published in print media and online.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar Pandey in his February 17th order acquitted the journalist and said, “The woman has the right to put her grievances at any platform of her choice and even after decades,” adding, “Women cannot be punished for raising voice against the sexual abuse in the pretext of complaint of defamation.”