Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the former captain of Team India in cricket, argued before the Delhi High Court on Monday that the two former business partners' defamation lawsuit against him was unsustainable. At this point, the high court declined to issue an interim order prohibiting Dhoni, several media outlets, and social media platforms from publishing or uploading any purportedly false defamatory content about the petitioner on any platform that might damage their reputation or goodwill.
Mihir Diwakar, the petitioner, and his spouse, Soumya Das, have filed a request for a permanent injunction and damages against Dhoni, as well as several social media platforms and media houses, asking the high court to prevent them from creating, disseminating, or publishing statements that are malicious and defamatory false about them.
In his court appearance, Dhoni's attorney stated that the complaint against him could not be maintained and that he had recently filed a lawsuit in a Ranchi court against the pair.
His legal practitioner went on to say that he had just been notified about the filing of the lawsuit by the high court registry and that he had not gotten a copy of the plaint or any connected papers.
In response, the court ordered the plaintiffs' attorneys to provide Dhoni's attorneys with the entire collection of documents in a three-day window.
The plaintiffs' attorney argued that all he wanted was fair reporting from the media and that his clients' negative coverage was unfair because they had already been called robbers and thugs.
One of the media outlets' attorneys, Siddhant Kumar, contended that the plea was unmaintainable and used an earlier ruling to support his position that no case would be made out unless particular accusations were made against each defendant, including the media outlets. He also brought up the question of this court's lack of territorial jurisdiction to hear the case.
Judge, Singh, scheduled a follow-up hearing for April 3 and instructed the plaintiffs' attorney to take the required actions to lay out the claims against the defendants. The high court had already requested that its registry notify Dhoni of the filing of a defamation lawsuit by his two ex-business partners.
A news conference was called on behalf of the cricket player who was making accusations against the plaintiffs, according to the plaintiffs' attorney.
Regarding the false accusations purportedly made by Dhoni regarding alleged unlawful earnings of Rs 15 crore from him and breach of a 2017 contract, the plaintiffs have requested that the defendants be prevented from harming the plaintiffs' reputation.
According to his attorney, Dhoni recently launched a criminal action against Diwakar and Das, alleging they had defrauded him of about Rs 16 crore by breaching an agreement to open cricket schools. A lower court in Ranchi has received the case, which is directed at two directors of the sports management firm Aarka Sports.
According to Dhoni's attorneys, they have filed a criminal lawsuit against Aarka Sports directors Mihir Diwakar and Soumya Das in a Ranchi court of competent jurisdiction. The case is based on Section 406 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with criminal breach of trust, and Section 420, which deals with cheating.
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