Delhi Court Orders NDTV Journalist Gargi Rawat To Pay ₹10K As Damages To Abhijit Iyer Mitra In Defamation Case

A Delhi Court on Monday directed NDTV journalist and news anchor Gargi Rawat to pay Rs. 10,000 as damages to commentator Abhijit Iyer Mitra in a defamation suit filed by him in 2019. While Mitra sought Rs. 20 lakh as damages for loss of his reputation, District Judge Satyabrata Panda awarded only Rs. 10,000 damages to him noting that he was "no stranger" to the controversy and had himself, on various occasions, indulged in making "objectionable, derogatory and reprehensible comments against various" persons or sections of society through his social media posts.Iyer had filed the defamation suit against Gargi and advocate Dushyant Arora. The controversy arose after Iyer, in December 2019, wrote an article for The Print titled as “In Rana Ayyub, the White West has found its next Arundhati Roy”.On the article, journalist Ayyub tweeted that the article was a “hitjob” on her and that she did not expect any better from the Indian media. As per the suit, Arora replied to Ayyub's tweet, saying that Mitra has been accused of rape and that he routinely engages in hate speech. Arora's tweet was like by Gargi.Iyer sought a permanent injunction against Arora and Gargi to restrain them from publishing the allegedly defamatory material on their Twitter accounts as well as for damages of Rs. 20 lakh. While no written statement was filed by Arora, Gargi responded that was an attention seeker and had himself engaged in hate speeches to gain attention.She said that Iyer's tweets and comments on other social media and photographs were controversial, amounted to hate speeches, were vulgar and abusive, obscene, accusing and letting down others, inciting religious feelings.She said that while she had “liked” the tweet in question, however, there was no averment in the suit that someone ever reached to the tweet. Notably, during the pendency of the suit, Iyer and Arora entered into a settlement pursuant to which the lawyer posted on Twitter “I hereby apologize to Abhijit Iyer Mitra for insinuation that he has been accused of rape and admit that the same has no basis in fact.”In the order, the judge observed that Iyer was able to show that since Gargi had “liked” the tweet in question, the same had become available on her Twitter profile for anybody to read and that the she was well aware about the effect of “liking” of the tweet by her. “Thus, this clearly was a case of republication by the defendant no.2 of the defamatory tweet of the defendant no.1,” the Court said. “Thus, the defendant no.2 evaded being questioned in cross-examination regarding the number of “followers” she was having at the relevant time and whether anyone including any of her “followers” had read the tweet in question on the Twitter profile of the defendant no.2. An adverse inference would be drawn against the defendant no.2 for evading stepping into the witness box for cross-examination,” it added. Further, the judge said that there was a republication of the allegedly defamatory tweet by Gargi by liking it and making same available for anybody to read on her Twitter profile.Click here to read order

Delhi Court Orders NDTV Journalist Gargi Rawat To Pay ₹10K As Damages To Abhijit Iyer Mitra In Defamation Case

Nupur Thapliyal

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