Delhi HC to hear defamation case against former team India captain MS Dhoni on Jan 29

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court is scheduled to hear a defamation suit filed against cricketer and former team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni by his former business partner Mihir Diwakar.

The Court today directed for intimation of said suit to be given to Dhoni and the law firm representing him while scheduling it for hearing on Jan 29.

While the couple argued before Court today that an injunction order can be passed even in cases which are sub judice before court, Adv. Siddhant Kumar, representing news agency ANI, submitted that the suit is not maintainable as per the decision of a coordinate bench in Veer Arjun Newspaper Pvt. Ltd. v. Bahori Lal & Ors. (2013).

He also submitted that the media house is fully protected under the exception to Section 499 of Indian Penal Code, 1860, as the reporting merely covered the proceedings in the pending criminal case before the Ranchi Court.

Brief facts

Filed by Diwakar and his wife Soumya Das, the suit seeks a permanent injunction and damages against Dhoni, various social media platforms such as Meta, X (formerly Twitter), Google, YouTube and 30 media houses and web portals.

The duo alleged that Dhoni has published defamatory and malicious statements against them on social media and in a press conference, alleging that they illegally gained Rs. 15 crores from the cricketer.

Besides the suit wherein they claim that the allegations by Dhoni are wild, false, baseless, vindictive, malicious and unfounded, they have also filed a criminal complaint against Dhoni which is pending adjudication in a court in Ranchi.

In 2017, an authorization letter was allegedly issued in favour of Diwakar's company, Aarka Sports Management Authority Pvt Ltd, for MS Dhoni Cricket Academy in pursuance of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a chain of cricket academies and sports complexes.

In August 2021, the said letter was revoked vide an email by an unknown third party, as per the suit. The couple claim that till date, no official letter of revocation has been received by Diwakar and thus, the email cannot be understood as a legal and valid revocation in law.

Cause Title: Mihir Diwakar & Anr. v. Mahendra Singh Dhoni & Ors.