A division bench of the Madras High Court has directed Indian media giant – Zee Media Corporation – to answer the interrogatories, served by former India captain MS Dhoni in connection with a defamation suit, in 10 days.
Back in 2014, Dhoni filed a defamation suit seeking Rs 100 crore from Zee Media, IPS officer G Sampath Kumar and a journalist for denigrating his image by linking him with an IPL match-fixing scandal. Later in 2022, a single judge allowed the former Indian skipper to take out the interrogatories (set of questions to be answered on facts of evidence) after the written statement filed by Zee Media was found to be unsatisfactory.
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According to The New Indian Express, Zee recently appealed against an order of the single judge who refused to strike out the 17 interrogatories. However, the Madras High Court bench, comprising Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq, agreed with the single judge’s finding which stated that the details and material facts required in the interrogatories were not dealt with in the written statement.
“In such a situation, interrogatories have to be necessarily answered by the appellant (Zee Media),” the order passed by the judges read.
Further responding to Zee’s application to strike out the interrogatories, the High Court said that the order passed by the single judge has to be understood in the scheme of Rule 7 (of CPC) 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 view of the foregoing, this original side appeal stands dismissed. The appellant is directed to answer the interrogatories within a period of ten days,” the bench further ordered.
After drawing curtains to his international career in 2020, MS Dhoni has been playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as the captain of the Chennai Super Kings. Earlier this year, his team won the fifth title, becoming the joint-most successful team in the tournament history with Mumbai Indians.
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