Case 34 · Rights and dissent

A minister resigns, sues his accuser, and loses

17 Oct 2018

Resigned. Lost the defamation case.

2,859 days since Someone did leave over this: M.J. Akbar (Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Oct 2018).

Human cost

Women who described harassment by a man who by then held public office, and were sued for saying so

Financial cost

A criminal defamation prosecution brought by a serving minister against a journalist who accused him

What happened

After multiple women publicly accused Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar of sexual harassment during his earlier career as an editor, he resigned on 17 October 2018 and filed a criminal defamation complaint against journalist Priya Ramani.

Claim against record

What the government said

Akbar denied all the allegations, said they were false and politically motivated, and pursued the defamation complaint and an appeal against the acquittal.

What the record shows

Resigned. Lost the defamation case.

The resignation was accompanied by a prosecution: the accuser was put in the dock rather than the accusations examined. In February 2021 a Delhi court acquitted Ramani, holding that a woman cannot be punished for speaking about abuse and that the right to reputation cannot come at the cost of the right to dignity. No inquiry into the underlying conduct was ever held.

Contested / alleged

The harassment allegations were never adjudicated as such; what a court decided was that the journalist was entitled to make them. Nothing here is a criminal finding against him.

What accountability should have looked like

An inquiry into the conduct alleged, rather than a criminal case against the woman who alleged it.

Ministers and office-holders responsible

Union Minister of State for External Affairs; resigned Oct 2018, lost his defamation caseM.J. Akbar

Naming who held the portfolio is a matter of public record. It is not by itself a finding of personal responsibility for any death or any rupee.

Sources

T1 primary record · T2 reporting · T3 partisan

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Cite or export this case

Citizens' Accountability Ledger, "A minister resigns, sues his accuser, and loses" (17 Oct 2018), case-87. https://whoisresponsible.xyz/case/case-87/

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