MJ Akbar vs Priya Ramani: District judge rules out case transfer, matter to continue in same court

The criminal defamation case filed by former Union Minister and BJP MP, M J Akbar, against journalist Priya Ramani will continue before the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Vishaj Pahuja, of Rouse Avenue, New Delhi, legal news website LiveLaw.in has reported.

This was decided by the District & Sessions Judge, Sujata Kohli, of Rouse Avenue on Thursday. This means that the court which had been handling the case right from the beginning will continue with the matter.

On October 13, the ACMM Vishal Pahuja had deferred the final hearing in the matter after stating that as per the orders of the Supreme Court, the ACMM's court was designated as Special Court for trying cases against MPs/MLAs. Therefore, it cannot hear a case filed by a MP, and can only hear cases against MPs, observed the court. Stating this, the ACMM had referred the matter to the Sessions Court for orders on transfer.

This development took place when the case was at the stage of the final hearing. The ACMM had by then completed the examination of witnessed produced by the complainant and the accused.

The ACMM's order to defer the hearing had caused confusion as to whether the trial proceedings will have to re-start afresh if the matter was assigned to some other court.

Settling such doubts, the District and Sessions Judge ordered on Thursday that the matter will continue before the same court.

The ACMM will take up the case on November 2.

The criminal defamation case was filed by Akbar in October 2018 after Priya Ramani revealed on social media that she had to face sexual harassment from him while she was working under him.

Akbar had to resign as the Union Minister following the controversy created by Ramani's revelations amid the '#MeToo' movement.