The Madras High Court has declined to reconsider its earlier decision allowing cricketer M.S. Dhoni to submit interrogatories—formal written questions—to the television channel News Nation as part of his ₹100 crore defamation suit. The suit, originally filed in 2014, accuses News Nation, Zee Media, and IPS officer Sampath Kumar of falsely linking Dhoni to the 2013 Indian Premier League (IPL) match-fixing and betting scandal.
On May 9, Justice A.A. Nakkiran dismissed News Nation’s review petition, in which the channel argued that its previous counsel had inadvertently consented to the interrogatories without prior consultation. Dhoni had previously criticized the channel’s written statement in the case as vague and lacking in specific responses, prompting his request to serve a set of 17 interrogatories.
While a single judge permitted similar interrogatories to be issued to Zee in 2022, another bench extended the same allowance to Dhoni for News Nation in July 2024 after the channel’s counsel raised no objections. News Nation later contended that its former legal representative acted without proper authorization, seeking to reverse the order.
Senior advocate P.R. Raman, representing Dhoni, argued that the review request was baseless as it did not identify any substantial legal error in the earlier ruling. He referenced the August 2023 dismissal of a similar petition by Zee, where a division bench upheld Dhoni’s right to deliver interrogatories.
Justice Nakkiran ruled that interrogatories could only be invalidated if they were found to be irrelevant, vexatious, or otherwise improper, none of which applied in this case. He added that the division bench’s prior endorsement of Dhoni’s right to use interrogatories confirmed their legitimacy. The judge further observed that the argument concerning the previous counsel’s lack of instructions was not a sufficient ground for a legal review.
“The applicant’s claim that submissions were made without instruction does not warrant reconsideration of the order,” the court stated, emphasizing that no error or irregularity was evident on the face of the record.
In related proceedings, the High Court earlier issued an interim injunction preventing Zee, Kumar, and others from making defamatory statements against Dhoni. In response, written submissions were filed by the defendants, during which Dhoni alleged that Sampath Kumar made further defamatory remarks. This led to a contempt of court petition, resulting in a 15-day imprisonment sentence for Kumar—a ruling that has since been stayed by the Supreme Court.