Delhi Court Stays Magistrate Order to Register FIR Against Abhijit Iyer‑Mitra

Overview

• A sessions court in Saket granted the stay on Tuesday while hearing Abhijit Iyer‑Mitra’s revision petition challenging a magistrate’s April order that directed police to register an FIR.
• The magistrate had ordered an FIR under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and asked police to investigate the posts as cyber offences involving sexually coloured remarks.
• Judge Purushottam Pathak said the words were in the form of shayari and did not specifically name an individual, and he found the police action report partly supportive of Mitra but overall inconclusive.
• The Newslaundry journalists who filed the complaint are pursuing a separate defamation suit in the Delhi High Court seeking a public apology and Rs. 2 crore in damages, and Mitra removed the posts after earlier judicial criticism.
• The stay gives the court time to hear evidence on motive and interpretation of the posts before any criminal registration proceeds and raises broader questions about how courts treat poetic or figurative speech online.