The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Madras High Court order sentencing retired IPS officer Sampath Kumar to fifteen days of imprisonment in a contempt of court case lodged by cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
A bench comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan issued notice on Sampath Kumar’s petition against the High Court decision and also on his application seeking interim relief. The Madras High Court in December 2023, sentenced Sampath Kumar to fifteen days imprisonment on the contempt of court petition filed by MS Dhoni.
The case was initiated over remarks made by Sampath Kumar against the judiciary in written submissions lodged by the former police officer in response to a defamation suit by MS Dhoni. The matter relates to a Rs 100 crore defamation case lodged by Mahendra Singh Dhoni against several parties, including Sampath Kumar.
The cricketer had filed the defamation suit before the Madras High Court against Zee Media, Sampath Kumar and others over alleged malicious statements and news reports that claimed that Dhoni was involved in betting and match-fixing of Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in 2013. MS Dhoni also sought to restrain the defendants, including Kumar who had initially probed the IPL betting scam, from issuing or publishing defamatory statements against the cricketer related to the issue.
The Madras High Court had initially granted an interim injunction and restrained Zee, Kumar and others from making defamatory statements against Dhoni. Later, Zee and the others filed their written statements in response to the defamation suit. Subsequently, Dhoni filed an application claiming that Kumar had gone on to make further defamatory statements in his written submissions. MS Dhoni had urged the High Court to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Kumar.
However, Dhoni later told the High Court that he was not interested in prosecuting Sampath Kumar for contempt if the latter tendered an apology for the remarks he had made. The retired IPS officer refused to tender an apology and argued that the contempt petition against him was not maintainable.
Consecutively, the cricketer submitted copies of such statements made by Sampath against him and the Supreme Court. On examining the statements, the Madras High Court remarked that they were indeed contemptuous and sentenced the retired police officer to fifteen days in prison.
Notably, the High Court suspended the sentence for thirty days to allow Kumar to file an appeal, which was heard before the top court today.