DMK IT wing’s Divya Sathyaraj filed a ₹1 crore defamation suit against actor Bayilvan Ranganathan in the Madras High Court

Divya Sathyaraj | Photo Credit: X/@DivyaSathyaraj_

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Information Technology (IT) Deputy Secretary Divya Sathyaraj has filed a ₹1 million defamation suit against actor Bayilvan Ranganathan and YouTube channel Puthiya Sinthanai for allegedly making defamatory statements against her after she expressed certain personal views on the institution of marriage in an interview given to another YouTube channel.

Justice K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi on Thursday (September 24, 2026) restrained the actor as well as Google LLC, Facebook India Online Services Private Limited and X Corp for allowing the dissemination of objectionable statements, whether on YouTube or other social media platforms. The judge was satisfied that counsel for the plaintiff, D. Ravichander, had made out a prima facie case for the grant of an interim injunction.

The judge wrote that the plaintiff, who is a nutritionist involved in politics and social activities, would suffer irreparable loss to her reputation and good name if the interim injunction she sought was not granted pending the determination of her defamation action seeking damages. After going through the defamatory statements, she also said that the balance of benefits was in favor of the plaintiff.

What is it about?

In her interview, Ms. Sathyaraj opined that a couple should live together because of the love they have for each other and not because of the pressure that they should get married. “They should be together because they are crazy about each other, not because they are married… I don’t believe in this corporate wedding of marriage based on religion, horoscope and so on. In fact, I don’t have a horoscope at all because my father doesn’t believe in such things.”

Based on her interview, the plaintiff father and actor Sathyaraj posted a video on his social media accounts supporting the views expressed by his daughter.

The plaintiff alleged that Mr. Ranganthan responded to her interview with false and defamatory statements and sought a direction to the actor as well as Puthiya Sinthanai YouTube channel owner Mohideen to jointly pay her damages of ₹1 million along with interest at 12% from the date of filing of the suit to the date of filing of the suit.

She also sought a permanent and interim injunction restraining Mr. Ranganathan from making, writing, publishing or broadcasting such defamatory statements in the future and urged the court to issue an interim injunction restraining the three multinational corporations from continuing to host the objectionable conversation on their social media platforms.

Published – 24 Sep 2026 14:10 IST