Madras High Court seeks response from Zee Media within 10 days in MS Dhoni defamation case.

In the Mahendra Singh Dhoni defamation case, the Madras High Court has directed Zee Media Corporation to respond to the inquiry within ten days. Zee Media had filed an appeal against the order of the single judge, who refused to quash 17 questions raised by MS Dhoni. The division bench of the Madras High Court has sought a reply from the media organization.

In 2014, Dhoni sued Zee Media, IPL official G Sampath Kumar, and a journalist for defamation of Rs 100 crore for maligning his image by linking him to the IPL match-fixing scam. In 2022, the single judge had allowed the former Indian captain to be kept out of questioning after finding the written statement filed by Zee Media unsatisfactory.

According to a report by Live Law, a division bench of the Madras High Court comprising Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Mohammad Shafiq has agreed with the findings of the single judge. He believes that essential details and material facts of the inquiry were not included in the written statement.

Issuing the order, the judge said that “in such a situation, the interrogatories must be answered by the appellant (Zee Media).” The judges have said that the single judge’s order should be construed in the scheme of Rule 7, which allows an opponent to move an application to quash the inquiry. The Appellant is directed to respond to the interrogatories within a period of ten days.