Madras HC rejects Mansoor Ali Khan's defamation plea, imposes Rs. 1L fine

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court (MHC) on Friday rejected the defamation suit filed by actor Mansoor Ali Khan against actors Trisha, Kushboo, and Chiranjeevi, further the court also imposed Rs.1 lakh, as a fine on the plaintiff.

Justice N Sathish Kumar heard the defamation plea of Mansoor, against other actors for allegedly having made defamatory comments against him on social media, claiming Rs.1 crore.

The counsel appeared for Mansoor sought time to produce the video containing the alleged controversial speech made by his client, which was condemned by Trisha, Kushboo, and Chiranjeevi.

The counsel appeared for Trisha contended that this suit is not maintainable as the plaintiff cannot file a suit combining three defendants alleging three different cause of action.

Counter to the submission, the counsel for the plaintiff submitted that the defendants shared posts on their social media handle defaming actor Mansoor and that his client's speech was not made out to attack anyone personally.

The counsel for Trisha contended that Mansoor had already tendered an unconditional apology for his controversial speech and now he filed the suit to attract attention from the media.

After the submission, the judge rejected Mansoor's defamation suit as the defendants social media posts were to condemn his controversial speech, there is nothing defaming in their statements.

Mansoor already tendered an unconditional apology for his speech to avoid criminal prosecution and now filed this suit to attract more publicity, observed the judge.

The judge imposed a Rs.1 lakh fine on Mansoor for wasting the court's time and directed to pay the fine to Adyar Cancer Institute.