No immediate action from Delhi High Court against Abhijit Iyer-Mitra for fresh tweets on Newslaundry

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to grant immediate interim relief to Newslaundry journalists, who alleged that right wing commentator Abhijit Iyer-Mitra resumed making defamatory insinuations against them through tweets on July 3 and August 4 despite an earlier takedown order. [Manisha Pande v. Abhijit Iyer-Mitra]

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav opined that there had to be some balancing of rights, noting that Iyer-Mitra had already taken down the earlier tweets pursuant to Court directions. He noted that the fresh tweets were not per say directed at Newslaundry as they referred to 'poetry' and 'Basti'.

"Are there any other posts? Let us see if there is any repeated recurrence. Today we are not passing any order, we are simply adjourning," the Court said.

The case will now come up for hearing next on October 16.

Advocate Bani Dikshit, appearing for Pande and other journalists, contended that this was the second interim application filed pursuant to liberty granted by the Court in May 2025.

Taking the judge through the posts, she submitted,

“He is very proud of the fact that the posts were poetic.”

According to her, the July 3 and August 4 tweets could not be read as innocuous in context.

“There is no ambiguity in anybody’s mind that ‘Basti’ can only be the posts,” she said, adding that the impugned remarks carried innuendos linked to earlier derogatory language describing Newslaundry as a “basti/brothel.”

When the Court pointed out that one of the pages relied upon was post by someone other than Iyer-Mitra, Dikshit clarified that these were “posts on his posts” and had to be read together.

“He is making an innuendo qua the posts he has already made. The referencing is very clear,” she said, while insisting that the tweets, without their earlier context, mean nothing.

The Court was hearing a ₹2 crore defamation suit filed by Newslaundry journalists, including Managing Editor Manisha Pande, against commentator Abhijit Iyer-Mitra and X Corp. (Twitter).

They initially moved the Court alleging that Iyer-Mitra referred to women journalists as “prostitutes” and described Newslaundry as a “basti/brothel,” amounting to a sustained vilification campaign that caused them mental trauma and reputational harm.

On May 21, Iyer-Mitra undertook before the Court to delete certain objectionable posts within five hours, and the undertaking was recorded in an interim order.

Summons was subsequently issued on May 26 with liberty to the plaintiffs to approach the Court again if fresh defamatory material was posted. The Bench also made clear that while it would address the specific posts in question, any other grievances would have to be raised separately.

The Court also observed then that the language used by Mitra was not permissible in a civilised society and warned that it was inclined to order police action, before Iyer-Mitra agreed to withdraw his earlier tweets.

Despite these directions, the plaintiffs have now alleged that Iyer-Mitra has resumed making defamatory insinuations, specifically through tweets dated July 3 and August 4 which revived earlier disputed references. The latest application filed by Newslaundry has sought an injunction to restrain Iyer-Mitra from further defamatory statements, takedown of the new posts, and directions to X Corp to remove similar content.

Iyer-Mitra was represented by Senior Advocate Percival Billimoria