States » SouthPosted at: Sep 17 2026 5:00PM


MS Dhoni asked to respond by Oct 9 for video recording his plea in Rs 100-crore defamation case

Chennai, Sep 17 (UNI) The Madras High Court on Thrusday directed iconic cricketer M.S.Dhoni to respond by October 9 to a petition filed by retired IPS officer G Sampath Kumar, seeking video recording of the former Indian captain's deposition in a Rs 100-crore defamation suit.
The former Indian skipper had filed the civil defamation suit in 2014 against Private Media, Tamil Nadu Police officer Sampath Kumar and others over alleged malicious statements claiming that he was involved in betting and match-fixing in IPL matches in 2013.
In the case, the High Court had earlier ordered the appointment of an Advocate Commissioner to record Dhoni’s deposition and Sampath Kumar too approached the court seeking a direction for video recording of Dhoni's deposition.
In his petition, Sampath Kumar sought the appointment of a judge to monitor the recording of the deposition. He also sought a direction that an unedited copy of the video-recorded deposition be provided to him.
The retired IPS officer further prayed that the deposition should not be conducted at five-star hotels or private bungalows and should instead be held in a court premises or a government building.
When the petition filed by the reitred cop came up for hearing today, Justice Govindarajan Tilakavathi directed Dhoni to file his response by October 9 and adjourned the matter to that date for further hearing.
On September 1, the High Court had directed the Registry to number three applications filed by Sampath Kumar to video record the evidence of Dhoni in the Rs 100-crore defamation suit filed by him in 2014 against the former police officer and a few others for dragging his name in the 2013 IPL betting scam and also for deciding their maintainability.
Justice Govindarajan Thilakavadi's directive followed the submissions made by the petitioner's counsel that the three prayers were maintainable and cited a Supreme Court order in a similar case. After perusing the order, the judge was convinced such applications could be filed. She made it clear that Dhoni would be given an opportunity to file his counter affidavit after the applications get numbered.
In the first application, Sampath Kumar urged the court to appoint a judicial officer to monitor the recording of the evidence of the cricketer by a court-appointed advocate commissioner. In the second application, he insisted upon video recording of the entire proceedings. The applicant insisted an unedited and certified copies of the video recording must be issued to him as well as the judicial officer to be appointed by the court. Thirdly, he wanted the recording of evidence to take place in a court premises or any government building.“ Just because he is a cricketer, the evidence should not be recorded in a five star hotel or some private bungalow,” the applicant’s counsel said.
On August 11, 2025 Justice C.V. Karthikeyan had ordered commencement of trial in the suit by appointing advocate G. Jayasri as a court appointed commissioner to record the evidence of Mr. Dhoni. Though Mr. Kumar had challenged that order, a Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and Mohammed Shaffiq dismissed the appeal on November 4, 2025.
Then, the Division Bench observed that insisting upon the presence of the cricketer before the Master’s Court, located inside the High Court campus, for the purpose of recording his evidence would require elaborate security arrangements to be made and hence there was nothing wrong on the part of the single judge in having appointed an advocate commissioner to record his evidence elsewhere.
Apart from the IPS officer, Mr. Dhoni had filed the suit against Zee Media Corporation, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary and News Nation Network Private Limited.
On October 28, 2025, the Court had directed that the Interpreter of the court to take up the task of transcribing and translating the contents of the CDs involved in the case subject to the payment of the necessary charges. In her order, Ms.Justice R.N.Manjula had observed that it was a humongous task and would take much time and energy of at least one Interpreter and a Typist for nearly three to four months to complete.
Since the entire time of one Interpreter and the involvement of a Typist are required, and additional costs are also involved in preparing the copies, the charges for transcription and translation were fixed at a sum of Rs. 10 lakh, payable by Dhoni.
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