NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday issued summons to political commentator Abhijit Iyer-Mitra in connection with a Rs 2 crore defamation suit filed by Newslaundry Executive Editor Manisha Pande and eight other women journalists. The suit pertains to a series of tweets where Iyer-Mitra allegedly labelled the journalists as “prostitutes”.
Mitra’s Advocate Percival Billimoria told that all the contentious tweets had been removed. But counsel for the journalists, Bani Dikshit, countered that deleting the posts did not reflect genuine regret. “There’s no sign of remorse. In fact, he continues to post poetic remarks on the issue,” she said. Despite these, Billimoria sought dismissal of the case.
However, the bench declined to be drawn into unrelated allegations. “This case is strictly about the posts. If there are other concerns, they must be pursued separately,” the judge said.
Dikshit informed that her clients intended to pursue damages, along with an injunction to prevent any future defamatory content. Justice ordered issuance of summons and maintained the interim relief in favour of the journalists.