It's a victory day for Journalist Priya Ramani, who today was acquitted by the Rouse Avenue Court of Delhi over a defamation case filed by former Union minister MJ Akbar, whom she had in 2018 accused of sexual harassment. Ms Ramani then had in an interview with Vogue magazine alleged Akbar as a "sexual predator" who was then a minister in prime minister Modi’s government. Two days later Akbar resigned from the ministry and filed a defamation case against Ramani’s claims, saying that such allegations have smeared his reputation, which has been levelled decades after the said incident happened.
The case began in January 2019 and today’s judgement was recorded by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar Pandey.
Here are major observations from the Delhi court’s verdict:
1. Women cannot be punished for raising their voice against sexual abuse and cannot be punished on the pretext of criminal complaint of slander. Right of reputation cannot be protected at the cost of the right of life and dignity for women, as guaranteed in the Constitution under Article 21, and right of equality before the law and equal protection of the law, as guaranteed under Article 14.
2. It cannot be ignored that most of the time, the offence of sexual harassment and sexual abuse are committed behind the closed doors or privately. Sometimes the victim herself does not understand what is happening to them or what is happening to them is wrong.
3. Despite how well respected some persons are in society, they in their personal lives could show extreme cruelty to the females.
4. The Court takes into consideration of the systematic abuse at the workplace due to lack of the mechanism to correct the grievance of sexual harassment at the time of the incident of sexual harassment against the accused.
5. The time has come for the society to understand that sexual abuse and sexual harassment and its implications on victims. The society should understand that an abusive person is just like the rest of the other person and he too has family and friends. He can also be a well-respected person in society.
6. Victims of sexual abuse do not even speak a word about abuse for many years because sometimes she herself has no idea that she is a victim of abuse. The victim may keep believing that she is at fault and the victim may live with that shame for years or decades.
7. Most of the women who suffer abuse do not speak about it or against it for a simple reason “The Shame” or the social stigma attached to the sexual harassment and abuse.
8. Sexual abuse takes away a woman’s dignity and self-confidence.
9. Attack on the character of sex abuser or offender by a sex abuse victim, is the reaction of self-defence after the mental trauma the victim suffers concerning the shame attached with the crime committed against her.
10. The woman has a right to set her grievance at any platform of her choice and even after decades.
11. It is shameful that the incidents of crime and violence against women are taking place in a country where epics such as “Mahabarata” and “Ramayana” were written on their value.
12. Indian women are capable; pave the way for them to excel, they only require freedom and equality. The 'glass ceiling' will not prevent the Indian women as a road lock for their advancement in society, if equal opportunity and social protection is given to them.
Also Read: Journalist Priya Ramani acquitted in MeToo defamation case by MJ Akbar