Nine women journalists from the independent media outlet Newslaundry have filed a defamation suit in the Delhi High Court against commentator Abhijit Iyer Mitra, accusing him of making sexually abusive and defamatory posts about them on social media platform X.

The suit, which also includes Newslaundry as a plaintiff, seeks Rs 2 crore in damages and compensation, along with a public apology from Mitra. It also seeks interim relief in the form of an order to take down the allegedly offensive posts from his X account.

The plaintiffs include Manisha Pande, Ishita Pradeep, Suhasini Biswas, Sumedha Mittal, Tista Roy Chowdhury, Tasneem Fatima, Priya Jain, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Priyali Dhingra, Live Law reported.

They allege that Mitra’s posts are not only libellous and unfounded but were made with malicious intent to harm their reputation and dignity.

According to the plea, Mitra’s posts referred to the women as “prostitutes” and described their workplace as a “brothel,” using derogatory language in a series of tweets.

The suit also points out that Mitra targeted Newslaundry subscribers—many of whom include professionals such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, scientists, engineers, and judges—by referring to them in a similarly derogatory manner.

“No woman/ person deserves to be dehumanised. No profession deserves to be weaponised as an insult,” the suit states, adding that the remarks strip women—whether journalists or sex workers—of agency, identity, and respect.

“They are sexist slurs aimed at humiliating women professionals in Plaintiff No. 10’s organisation, and they directly attack their dignity and right to work without fear or sexual harassment, apart from a attack on the Plaintiff No. 10 organisation,” the suit argues.

The matter is scheduled to be heard today by Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav.