The Madras High Court has dismissed an appeal preferred by Zee Media Corporation Limited against a single judge’s order directing it to answer certain questions raised by cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni in a defamation suit filed by him demanding ₹100 crore in damages for having dragged his name in to the IPL betting scam.
Justices R. Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq directed the media company to answer the questions within a period of 10 days. The Division Bench was of the view that there was reasonable connection between the 17 interrogatories and the pending civil suit and hence the appellant must necessarily answer them.
The judges agreed with Senior Counsel P.R. Raman, representing the cricketer, that the appellant had not made out any ground for interference with the well considered order passed by the single judge on November 11, 2022.
Mr. Dhoni had filed the suit in 2014 against Zee Media Corporation, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary and Indian Police Service officer G. Sampath Kumar. Zee had recently filed its reply to the suit by way of a written statement but the cricketer found the response to be very vague and not answering the specific allegations levelled by him.
Therefore, he took out an application seeking the leave of the court to deliver 17 interrogatories to the media house and urged the court to issue summons calling upon the company to give evidence.
