Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to hear commentator Abhijit Iyer Mitra in the defamation suit filed by nine women employees of digital news platform Newslaundry, till he takes down his tweets.

The journalists allege that Iyer posted sexually abusive social media posts against them on X, referring to them as 'prostitute' and their workplace as a 'brothel'. Upon perusal of the tweets, Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav orally remarked,

Advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai appearing for Iyer submitted that not even single tweet is attributed to the journalists individually.

Disagreeing, the bench remarked, "If you want that finding, then let me say. They are directly attributable to plaintiffs."

Dehadrai then submitted that Newslaundary is "not a news organization as they claim to be". He submitted Iyer has also put out multiple tweets regarding questionable sources of the organization's income.

"The remark made, please have that for a moment. It's in the context of organization referred to as a brothel. Because they take this income from questionable sources," Dehadrai argued.

Unconvinced, the judge said, "Whatever the questionable income, today something which is not under challenge can't be looked into...Does he understand the definition of brothel? Someone who takes financial assistance from questionable sources, can it be called brothel?...You may have multiple grievances and fair comments against plaintiff but choice of words are impermissible in a civilized society...Even going by any scratch of imagination, even if not attributable to anyone, such language in public platform..."

As the bench suggested ordering suo moto registration of FIR against Iyer for using "this kind of language" against women on a public platform, he agreed to immediately take down the tweets.

The matter has now been posted for next week.

The defamation suit seeks a public apology from Mitra and Rs. 2 crore as damages and compensation for the alleged defamation.

In the interim, the suit seeks take down or removal of the impugned posts from Iyer's X handle.

The women journalists are Manisha Pande, Ishita Pradeep, Suhasini Biswas, Sumedha Mittal, Tista Roy Chowdhury, Tasneem Fatima, Priya Jain, Jayashree Arunachalam and Priyali Dhingra. Newslaundry is also one of the plaintiffs in the suit.

The suit submits that the allegedly defamatory posts by Iyer on X (formerly Twitter) are libellous, unfounded and misconceived, tainted with collateral objectives, having been made knowingly and deliberately, calculated to harm the dignity and reputation of the women employees.

While fair criticism of journalistic work is welcome, nobody deserves to be personally humiliated, the plaintiffs stated.

As per the suit, Iyer, through his series of posts on X platform, has “falsely and maliciously” labelled the women employees using allegedly derogatory terms and slurs, referring to them as 'prostitute' and their workplace as a 'brothel'.

It adds that all the subscribers of Newslaundry are also referred to as "prostitutes" in Hindi, without appreciating that they range from doctors, to lawyers, to judges, to teachers, to scientists, to architects, to engineers, amongst others.

The suit further submits that even sex workers have dignity and that the term 'prostitute' as an insult is not only an attack on women journalists, but it also reinforces deeply regressive and violent attitudes toward sex workers, many of whom already face systemic marginalisation and stigma.

“No woman/ person deserves to be dehumanised. No profession deserves to be weaponised as an insult. These remarks strip women—whether journalists or sex workers—of agency, identity, and respect,” the plea said.

It adds that Iyer's posts cannot be covered with free speech or journalistic criticism or even satire or fair comments.

“They are sexist slurs aimed at humiliating women professionals in Plaintiff No. 10's organisation, and they directly attack their dignity and right to work without fear or sexual harassment, apart from a attack on the Plaintiff No. 10 organisation,” the plaint states.

The suit has been filed through Advocate Uddhav Khanna and Dhruva Vig.

Title: Manisha Pande and Ors v. Abhijit Iyer Mitra and Anr.