Madras High Court restrains actor Bayilvan Ranganathan in Divya Sathyaraj defamation suit
Divya Sathyaraj has sued actor Bayilvan Ranganathan and a YouTube channel for ₹1 crore, alleging defamatory statements made after her interview on marriage.
The Madras High Court has granted interim relief to Divya Sathyaraj, deputy secretary of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's information technology wing, in a defamation suit she has filed against actor Bayilvan Ranganathan and the YouTube channel Puthiya Sinthanai.
Justice K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi on Thursday restrained Mr. Ranganathan, along with Google LLC, Facebook India Online Services Private Limited and X Corp, from permitting the circulation of the objectionable statements on YouTube or other social media platforms. The court was satisfied that the plaintiff's counsel, D. Ravichander, had established a prima facie case for an interim injunction.
The judge observed that Ms. Sathyaraj, a nutritionist active in politics and social work, would face irreparable harm to her reputation and goodwill if the injunction were withheld while the suit for damages is pending. Having examined the statements in question, the court held that the balance of convenience favoured the plaintiff.
The dispute
The case traces back to an interview in which Ms. Sathyaraj set out her personal views on marriage. She said a couple should live together out of love for each other rather than because a wedding compels them to. "They should be together because they are crazy about each other, not because they are married," she said, adding that she does not subscribe to weddings arranged around religion or horoscopes and that she has no horoscope of her own because her father does not believe in such practices.
Her father, actor Sathyaraj, subsequently posted a video on his social media accounts endorsing the views she had expressed.
Ms. Sathyaraj contends that Mr. Ranganathan responded to the interview with false and defamatory statements. She has sought a direction for him and Mohideen, proprietor of the Puthiya Sinthanai channel, to jointly pay ₹1 crore in damages, with interest at 12% per annum from the date of filing until realisation.
She has also asked for a permanent and interim injunction barring Mr. Ranganathan from making, writing, publishing or broadcasting such statements in future, and for an interim injunction restraining the three multinational corporations from continuing to host the objectionable interview on their platforms.