The Madras High Court on April 12 directed YouTuber Maridhas to pay costs of ₹5,000 to TV18 Broadcast Limited as a pre-condition to set aside an order passed by the court on April 27, 2022 setting him ex-parte in a 2020 civil suit seeking damages of ₹1.5 crore for some of his allegedly defamatory videos.
Justice C.V. Karthikeyan made it clear that the costs must be paid to the television company alone, on or before April 25 and reported to the court on April 29, though the civil suit for damages had been filed jointly by it as well as its former Senior Editor M. Gunasekaran and senior anchor Jeeva Sagapthan.
The judge passed the orders while allowing two applications filed by the YouTuber this year urging the court to set aside the 2022 order passed setting him ex-parte and also to take his written statement to the civil suit on filed after condoning a delay of 1,141 days on his part in filing the statement.
