The Madras High Court on Friday imposed costs of ₹1 lakh on actor A. Mansoor Ali Khan for seeking the leave of the court to file a suit demanding damages of ₹1 crore each from actors Trisha Krishnan, Khushbu Sundar and Chiranjeevi Konidela for having tweeted against him.
Justice N. Sathish Kumar dismissed the application seeking leave and directed the applicant to pay the cost to the Cancer Institute (Women India Association) at Adyar in Chennai within two weeks. The cost was imposed for wasting the time of the court with a frivolous plea.
The judge also said that the application appeared to have been filed solely for publicity though it was a fact that the three actors had merely registered their protest by reacting on social media to certain comments made by the applicant with respect to female co-stars in the film industry.
Not finding anything defamatory in the tweets of the three actors, Justice Kumar said, it was normal for any respectful member of the society to condemn objectionable remarks made against women and therefore, the three actors had just registered their protest against the applicant.
The judge also pointed out that the applicant had actually tendered an unconditional apology when he had to face criminal proceedings for the remarks made by him to the media regarding rape scenes in movies but had suddenly turned volte face and filed the present application.
He further said that the present application seeking leave had been filed only because Mr. Chiranjeevi was a resident of Hyderabad which was outside the territorial jurisdiction of Madras High Court and not for filing a single suit against the three defendants though the cause of action was different.
The judge agreed with actor Trisha’s counsel-on-record K.V. Babu that three actors had tweeted on three different dates and hence Order 3 Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure does not permit the filing of a single suit for three different causes of action without the leave of the court.
In a counter affidavit to the application, Ms. Trisha said, “In fact, I should have initiated proceedings against the applicant/plaintiff herein for the defamatory and unparliamentary remarks made against me in the public platform. But, to my shock and surprise, the applicant has filed the suit against me.”
She went on to state: “If the applicant is granted leave, I would be put to great loss and hardship besides I will be unnecessarily harassed for no fault of mine... It is evidently very clear that the applicant/plaintiff is only attempting to tarnish my image in the society and as well as my dignity.”
Published - December 22, 2023 08:05 pm IST
