Delhi HC agrees to list MJ Akbar’s plea challenging acquittal of Priya Ramani in defamation case

The Delhi High Court on Friday allowed former Union minister MJ Akbar’s plea seeking an early hearing of his appeal challenging a trial court order acquitting journalist Priya Ramani in a criminal defamation case, reported PTI.

The High Court will hear the appeal on April 26.

In 2018, Ramani accused Akbar of sexual harassment during the #MeToo movement in India. Following this, Akbar resigned from the Union Council of Ministers and filed a defamation case against the journalist.

In February 2021, a metropolitan magistrate court in Delhi acquitted Ramani in the defamation case. In his order, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar Pandey had observed that a woman cannot be punished for raising her voice against sexual abuse.

“The woman has a right to put her grievance at any platform of her choice and even after decades,” the court’s order stated. The court had also accepted Ramani’s contention that Akbar was not a man of a “stellar reputation”.

However, Akbar had challenged the trial court’s judgement in the High Court, which agreed to admit the petition on January 13, 2022.

In his plea filed on Friday, Akbar said that he is a senior citizen and a senior journalist. He said that two years had passed since he challenged Ramani’s acquittal.

“The trial court has erred in considering the instant case...

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