Madras High Court Orders Media House to Respond to Interrogatories in 10 Days Regarding MS Dhoni’s Defamation Case
Zee Media Corporation, a major player in Indian media, has been given 10 days to respond to the interrogatories that former India captain MS Dhoni submitted in connection with a defamation lawsuit, according to a division bench of the Madras High Court.
In 2014, Dhoni sued Zee Media, IPS officer G Sampath Kumar, and a journalist for defaming his reputation by connecting him to an IPL match-fixing scam, asking Rs 100 crore in damages. Later in 2022, after finding Zee Media’s written statement to be unsatisfactory, a solitary judge let the former Indian captain to withdraw the interrogatories (series of questions to be answered based on facts of evidence).
The New Indian Express reports that Zee has filed an appeal against a single judge’s decision to uphold the 17 interrogatories. The Madras High Court bench, made up of Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq, concurred with the single judge’s conclusion that the written statement lacked the pertinent information needed by the interrogatories.
The ruling issued by the justices noted, “In such a situation, interrogatories have to be unavoidably answered by the appellant (Zee Media).”
The High Court further responded to Zee’s request for the interrogatories to be struck out by stating that the order made by the single judge must be understood in the context of CPC Rule 7, which “permits an adversary to take out an application to strike out the interrogatory if it is unreasonable, vexatious or prolix, oppressive, unnecessary, or scandalous.”
“In light of the aforementioned, this first side appeal is denied. The judge further said, “The appellant is required to answer the interrogatories within a term of 10 days.
MS Dhoni has been playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as the captain of the Chennai Super Kings since calling it quits on his international career in 2020. His club joined Mumbai Indians as the most successful team in tournament history when they won the fifth championship earlier this year.
