The Madras High Court has dismissed News Nation’s plea seeking a review of an earlier order that permitted cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni to serve formal interrogatories to the television channel in a ₹100 crore defamation suit. Dhoni had filed the suit in 2014 against News Nation, Zee Media, and Indian Police Service officer Sampath Kumar for allegedly linking him to the Indian Premier League (IPL) match-fixing scandal of 2013.
Justice AA Nakkiran, while rejecting the review application on May 9, ruled that the arguments advanced by News Nation did not meet the legal threshold required for a review. The channel contended that its former counsel had inadvertently consented to the interrogatories without consulting the client.
Dhoni had previously argued that News Nation’s written statement was overly general and lacked specific answers, prompting him to seek permission from the court to issue 17 interrogatory questions to both News Nation and Zee Media. In 2022, a single judge had already allowed interrogatories to Zee Media. In July 2024, another bench granted similar permission against News Nation after its counsel had submitted a “no objection.”
Senior advocate PR Raman, representing Dhoni, opposed News Nation’s review plea, emphasizing that the prior order did not suffer from any material error. Raman also pointed out that an earlier appeal by Zee Media had been dismissed by a division bench comprising Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq, which had upheld the right of Dhoni to pose interrogatories.
In his ruling, Justice Nakkiran clarified that interrogatories can be struck down only if they are unreasonable, oppressive, unnecessary, or scandalous, none of which applied in this case. The judge added, “The learned counsel for the applicant has contended that the previous counsel had made submissions without getting instructions from the applicant. It is not a valid ground to review the said application.”
The case had previously seen the high court grant an interim injunction restraining Zee Media, Sampath Kumar, and others from making defamatory statements against Dhoni. Later, Dhoni filed a contempt plea against Kumar, alleging further defamatory statements in his written submissions. The high court sentenced Kumar to 15 days imprisonment for contempt, a sentence which was subsequently stayed by the Supreme Court.
