Dikhyaa Mohanty 
A big victory for India’s Me Too’ movement as Delhi court acquitted journalist Priya Ramani in a criminal defamation case filed by former Union Minister MJ Akbar for accusing him of sexual misconduct.
By acquitting Ramani Delhi Court stated that Woman has right to put her grievance even after a decade. And it was observed that a man of social status can also be a sexual harasser. Article 21 and the right to equality are guaranteed under the Constitution and Ramani has full right to put up her case in any platform of her choice.
The court furthers said that sexual abuse takes away dignity and self-confidence. The Right to reputation can’t be protected at the cost of the right to dignity. Women cannot be punished for raising their voice against sexual abuse on the pretext of complaint of defamation.
The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate also conveyed into consideration the systemic abuse at the workplace and stated that the time has come for society to understand the implication of sexual harassment.
The court accepted the possibility of defense of the accused that Ramani made the confession after other women named Akbar as a sexual predator. The Court also affirmed that Akbar was not a man of a stellar reputation.
It acquired Ramani’s allegation that Akbar’s claim of a stellar reputation was wrecked by Ghazala Wahab’s testimony, who was also allegedly sexually abused by Akbar.
The judgment was passed by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Ravindra Kumar Pandey in open court in the presence of both parties.
As per the report in 2018, Ramani had made an allegation of sexual harassment against Akbar in the wake of the #MeToo Movement. To which Akbar filed the criminal defamation case against her and resigned as the Union Minister. The trial began in 2019 and went on for almost two years.
Even Ramani also wrote an article for Vogue where she expressed her distress of being sexually harassed by a previous boss during her job interview for his publication.
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