NDTV's Gargi Rawat fined ₹10,000 in Abhijit Iyer-Mitra defamation case
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New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday directed NDTV journalist Gargi Rawat to pay Rs 10,000 as damages to commentator Abhijit Iyer-Mitra in a defamation suit he filed in 2019, Live Law reported.
Iyer-Mitra had originally sought Rs 20 lakh in damages from Rawat and advocate Dushyant Arora. The defamation suit was filed after Arora allegedly posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Iyer-Mitra was a rape accused, and Rawat was accused of liking the post.
District Judge Satyabrata Panda of the Patiala House Courts fined Rawat Rs 10,000, noting that Iyer-Mitra was “no stranger to controversy” and had often made “objectionable, derogatory and reprehensible comments” on social media. The judge added that if the amount is not paid within two weeks, it will carry 6% annual interest from the date of the judgment until cleared, Bar and Bench reported.
Arora had already settled the matter by publicly apologising to Iyer-Mitra on X and admitting that his claim “had no basis in fact”.
The case originated from a December 2019 exchange on social media. Journalist Rana Ayyub had described an article by Iyer-Mitra for The Print, titled “In Rana Ayyub, the White West has found its next Arundhati Roy”, as a “hit job”. Iyer-Mitra wrote the article in response to a New Yorker piece discussing the Narendra Modi-led government’s policies against Muslims.
Replying to Ayyub’s post, Arora alleged that Iyer-Mitra was a rape accused and routinely engaged in hate speech. In his suit, Iyer-Mitra argued that the allegation caused reputational damage and was homophobic, noting that he “identifies as a ‘gay’ man”.
During an earlier hearing, Rawat described Iyer-Mitra as an attention-seeker who engaged in hate speech for visibility, and argued that though she had “liked” the social media post, there was no proof that her action amplified it. The court rejected this defence, stating that Rawat’s “like” made the post available on her profile, constituting “republication,” Live Law reported.
In 2024, X updated its privacy settings so users can no longer see which posts others have liked.