Zee Media Got Deadline To Respond To Match-Fixing Allegations Against MS Dhoni
MS Dhoni filed a defamation case against ZEE in 2014 (X.com)
Zee Media Corporation's appeal to strike out interrogatories served by former cricketer MS Dhoni in connection with a defamation claim was denied by the Madras High Court division bench, as reported by the New Indian Express. The Zee media outlet was ordered to respond to the interrogatories within 10 days.
Zee Media appealed a single judge's decision to reject MS Dhoni's 17 interrogatories (questions to be answered based on evidence) raised in court. A single judge allowed the former Indian captain to withdraw the interrogatories after finding Zee Media's written statement unsatisfactory last year.
In 2014, MS Dhoni filed a defamation lawsuit against Zee Media, IPS officer G Sampath Kumar, and a journalist, seeking Rs 100 crore from them for damaging his reputation by connecting him to an IPL match-fixing scandal.
Justices R. Mahadevan and Mohammed Shafiq, who made up the majority of the court's bench, agreed with the single judge's specific conclusion that the written statement lacked the necessary specifics and material facts to answer the interrogatories and that Zee Media had not provided any justification for overturning the order.
Here is what the Madras High Court said on MS Dhoni's match-fixing allegations
"In such a situation, interrogatories have to be necessarily answered by the appellant (Zee Media). In view of the foregoing, this original side appeal stands dismissed. The appellant is directed to answer the interrogatories within a period of ten days," the Judges ruled in an order they issued on Thursday.
In response to Zee Media's request to have the interrogatories dismissed, the Bench stated that the single judge's ruling must be interpreted in the context of CPC Rule 7, which "permits an adversary to take out an application to strike out the interrogatory if it is unreasonable, vexatious or prolix, oppressive, unnecessary, or scandalous."
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