Delhi High Court Awards ₹5 Lakh damages to TV Today over defamatory tweets against Rajdeep Sardesai

New Delhi, 26 Sep – The Delhi High Court has awarded a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to TV Today Network for defamatory tweets targeting the channel and its senior journalist, Rajdeep Sardesai, regarding an interview conducted with actress Rhea Chakraborty in 2020.

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav remarked that the tweets in question at the microblogging platform X (formerly known as Twitter) were “highly defamatory” and remained unsubstantiated despite opportunities given to the Twitter user to justify his remarks.

“The objectionable tweets were highly defamatory and remain unsubstantiated by the defendant, despite having been afforded sufficient opportunity to do so. Such an irresponsible act has to be deprecated … Having considered the overall circumstances, this Court deems it just and proper to award Rs 5,00,000 as general compensatory damages to the plaintiff, to redress the reputational harm, emotional hardship, and loss of professional credibility caused by the conduct of the defendant,” said the order.

The lawsuit was filed in 2020 by TV Today Network, which owns news channels India Today and Aaj Tak.

The tweets, posted by Anurag Srivastava through some of the handles, contained derogatory remarks referring to Sardesai as a “dalla” (a derogatory Hindi term implying ‘pimp’) and comparisons with terror-accused Zakir Naik.

The defendant also alleged that the actress bribed the popular journalist and India Today to secure the interview, using hashtags such as #ShameOnAajTak.

The media house alleged that these posts caused reputational and financial harm. The network contended that the tweets formed part of a premeditated, pre-planned, and systematic campaign to damage its standing.

Although the defendant later deleted the tweets and assured the Court he would not repost them, interim orders had already restrained him from publishing such content.

Disposing of the lawsuit, the high court stated that since the filing of his affidavit, Srivastava did not publish, republish, or in any manner defame the reputation of TV Today.

(This story has not been edited by News Mania staff and is published from a Media Release)