India, May 21 -- In a scathing rebuke, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered political commentator Abhijit Iyer-Mitra to remove a series of allegedly defamatory and abusive posts directed at nine women journalists from Newslaundry, warning that failure to comply could result in suo motu criminal proceedings. The court made it unequivocally clear that Iyer-Mitra would not be allowed to argue in the ongoing civil defamation case unless the offensive posts were deleted.

The case stems from a series of tweets where Iyer-Mitra reportedly referred to the journalists as "prostitutes" and labelled Newslaundry as a "brothel"-remarks that the petitioners, including Executive Editor Manisha Pande, described as not just defamatory but also sexua...