"No Right To Disparage Reputation" : Madras HC Restrains Savukku Sankar From Making Statements Against Minister Senthil Balaji

The Madras High Court on Tuesday granted an interim injunction to Minister Senthil Balaji in his plea against the defamatory allegations made by Youtuber Shankar alias Savukku Shankar. Justice Krishnan Ramasamy restrained Savukku Shankar from making any further derogatory vedios and statements. The court noted as under

In a democratic set up, no one has right to disparage the reputation of another. In this case, the respondent/defendant, prima facie, appears to have indulged in slander having posted various videos and tweets in social media intermediaries, viz., YouTube, Twitter, etc. with false, scandalous imputations against the applicant/plaintiff, who is a Political Executive, which in the opinion of this Court, would prima facie tarnish the personal and professional reputation of the applicant/plaintiff in the society. In such view of the matter, it would be appropriate to restrain the respondent/defendant from making further such derogatory videos and statements, by way of interim injunction. 

Minister Senthil Balaji had moved a the court seeking damages and a mandatory injunction after the respondent/defendant had posted a video in Youtube where he alleged that the Minister was running all the TASMAC shops in the state whereas in reality TASMAC tenders are floated by the Manager of TASMAC and the applicant had nothing to do with the tender process.

In another video, the respondent stated that the Minister was running a job scam wherein he was receiving money in the guise of providing government jobs. He had stated that the money involved in this scam was around 200-300 crores. Further, he had also alleged that the one of the victims had committed suicide and had named the minister in his suicide note. In another video, he had alleged that the applicant n 200 crores to the DMK party for election expenses and he compared the applicant to Eknath Shinde.

The applicant contended that the videos were a deliberate attempt by the respondent to tarnish his reputation. Further, it would also affect his personal and political image. The petitioner also submitted that the respondent was constantly engaged in tarnishing the image of the judiciary and this had even led to the Maduari bench to initiate a suo moto contempt case against him. 

Finding merits in the argument of the petitioner, the court granted the interim injunction and posted the matter to 09.09.2022.

Case Title: V Senthil Balaji v. A Shankar

Case No: OA 509 of 2022 & A.No.3494 of 2022 in CS.No.172 of 2022

Click here to read/download the judgment