Madras High Court orders registry not to number DMK’s ₹1 crore defamation suit against TVK ministers

In the suit, the DMK intended to seek compensation from the two ministers and TVK’s IT department for allegedly accusing it of abetting child sexual abuse accused R. Veeramani of Gem Granites during his previous regime. | Photo credit: th-online admin

The Madras High Court has stayed the numbering of a ₹1 million defamation suit filed by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), represented by its general secretary Duraimurugaan, against Public Works and Sports Development Minister Aadhav Arjun, Energy Resources and Law Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar and Tamilaga, Information Technology Technology (Tamilagawing Vettri).

A Division Bench of N. Sathish Kumar and GK Muthukumar passed the interim orders on two individual appeals filed by Mr. Kumar and the IT department of TVK. Mr. Arjuna has not yet filed any appeal against the permission (permission) granted by Justice K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi on October 5, 2026 to the DMK to initiate the case in the Madras High Court.

After the Division Bench heard the preliminary arguments made by Advocate General Vijay Narayan for the Law Minister and Senior Counsel Satish Parasaran for the TVK IT Department, Senior Counsel J. Ravindran for the DMK said that the papers relating to the two appeals were yet to be served on him and therefore he would not take steps to number the suit till the next date of hearing of the appeal.

“Therefore, the statement is recorded. The registry is directed not to number the civil action until the next hearing date,” the judges ordered, ordering the registry to file an appeal on Tuesday (October 13, 2026). Meanwhile, advocates Hari Radhakrishnan and Pranjal Agarwal, registered counsel for the appellants, were directed to serve all the documents on Mr. Ravindran.

In the suit, the DMK intended to seek compensation from the two ministers as well as the IT department of TVK for allegedly accusing the plaintiff of covering up the child molestation case of accused R. Veeramani of Gem Granites during the party’s previous regime. It sought the court’s permission to file the suit as TVK’s IT Wing as well as X Corp, Meta Platforms and YouTube LLC were located outside its territorial jurisdiction.

The Advocate General opposed the leave application on the ground that the suit was brought against the Ministers in their official capacity and therefore should not be allowed to be brought without the plaintiff notifying the Ministers in advance as required by Section 80 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC). He argued that the suit was not maintainable at all for failure to follow the procedure.

Similarly, Mr. Parasaran argued that a political party is not a legal entity and a defamation suit would not be possible at the instance of a political party. However, Justice Govindarajan granted leave to file the suit after observing that issues of maintainability of the suit may be raised even after it is numbered and not necessarily at the leave stage.

However, the Minister of Law argued in his appeal that the single judge did not take into account that the plaintiff did not send him any notice before filing the lawsuit, nor did he file a motion with the court to waive the requirement to issue such a notice required by § 80 OSŘ. He said that such a question of maintainability cannot be deferred for decision after the numbering of the suit.

Published – 11 Oct 2026 20:29 IST