Stalin Tells Madras High Court He Cannot Be Held Liable for Every DMK Post

DMK president M.K. Stalin has told the Madras High Court that he cannot be held legally answerable for every social media post put out by the party's various wings or functionaries merely because he heads the organisation.

The submission came in a counter affidavit filed in response to a ₹1-crore defamation suit brought against him and the DMK's Information Technology wing by Minister for Public Works and Sports Development Aadhav Arjuna. The Minister's complaint concerns an X post by the IT wing.

In the counter, filed alongside a plea for interim relief, Mr. Stalin contended that while he exercises administrative control over office-bearers of the party's wings as its head, that position does not make him legally liable for the individual acts of members or wings. He also denied having instructed or approved the post at issue, which claimed that a person named John Britto — booked by the Directorate of Enforcement in a drug-trafficking case — was a relative of the Minister.

Justice K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi adjourned the hearing on the interim relief applications to October 26, 2026. The court was told that the counter affidavit had been served on the Minister's counsel, A.P. Suryaprakasam, and that the DMK IT wing's counter was ready and would be served on the plaintiff's counsel the same day. Counsel for the DMK president asked that the matter be listed for arguments after the court's Dussehra vacation.

In his affidavit, Mr. Stalin argued that the Minister has not denied having a relative by the name of John Britto who is also facing an ED case. He further submitted that the Minister's wife, mother-in-law and father-in-law face criminal cases registered by the ED, and that the Minister himself is under CBI investigation in connection with the Karur stampede tragedy.

He described the Minister's claim that being linked to an accused person had damaged his reputation as bizarre, given the pending cases involving his immediate family and the case against him. Mr. Stalin added that unless the Minister distances himself from family members accused of crimes, including John Britto, he cannot claim to have been defamed by being linked to others accused of a different offence. Even if, without admitting, the IT wing's post stemmed from a mistaken identity, he said, it would not lower the Minister's reputation or cause damage, since his actual relatives are themselves under ED investigation.

The DMK president also accused Mr. Arjuna of having used intemperate and abusive language against him and his family in the past, citing a speech at a Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam protest near the Chennai Collectorate on March 12, 2026, in which the Minister allegedly called him a "foolish Chief Minister." Mr. Stalin said this went beyond political criticism and amounted to a personal and derogatory attack.