Delhi HC restrains publication of letter alleging plagiarism by historian Vikram Sampath
New Delhi Feb 18 PTI The Delhi High Court Friday restrained publication of any defamatory material and the letter written to the Royal Historical Society in London alleging plagiarism by historian Vikram Sampath in relation to his work on Vinayak Damodar SavarkarJustice Amit Bansal passed the interim order against academicians Audrey Truschke Ananya Chakrabarti Rohit Chopra and Ashok Swain as well as freelance journalist Abhishek Baxi on a defamation lawsuit filed by SampathThe judge issued summons on the suit to the individuals as well as the Centre and Twitter and said that the plaintiff historian made out a prima facie case for grant on an ad-interim protection as the content of the letter was damaging his career and reputationThe continued publication of the letter has been causing considerable damage to the plaintiffs reputation and career Balance of convenience is also in his favour and irreparable damage will be caused if the injunction is not granted the court statedConsequently till the next date of hearing defendants no 1 Dr Audrey Truschke 2 Dr Ananya Chakrabarti 3 Dr Rohit Chopra 6 Abhishek Baxi and 7 Ashok Swain are restrained from publishing the letter dated February 11 2022 or any other defamatory material on Twitter as well as any other online or offline platforms it addedThe court noted Twitters stand that if ordered it would take down the specific tweets which are allegedly defamatory and placed the case for further hearing on April 1In the plea Sampath said he is the author of a critically acclaimed biography of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in LondonHe informed the court that earlier this month Truschke Chakrabarti and Chopra wrote to the Society making serious allegations of plagiarism with respect to the two-volume biography of SavarkarSubsequently Baxi and Swain took to Twitter to post defamatory tweets against the plaintiff it was statedLawyer Raghav Awasthi appearing for Sampath said the allegations of plagiarism were baseless considering that the piece contained due citations attributions and footnotesIve Sampath cited all authors As a scholar all I have is my reputation amongst my peers My academic reputation will go for a toss the lawyer saidIn the plea filed through lawyer Mukesh Sharma apart from seeking an injunction against the named individuals the plaintiff has also sought around Rs 2 crore as damagesThe plea has claimed that it is at the receiving end of an international smear campaign to discredit him because he has shown the academic courage and gumption to challenge the prevailing narrative around a historical figure like Sh VD SavarkarLawyer Jawahar Raja appearing for one of the individual defendants opposed the interim order and stated that the issue of plagiarism was wider than that of copyright infringement and there were sentences lifted verbatimI am not asking you to withdraw the letter Im just saying dont publish it I only need to take a prima facie view It is only for an ad-interim arrangement Justice Bansal saidSenior advocate Sajan Poovayya appearing for Twitter stated that the platform which is an intermediary cant police the letter but if ordered by the court it would take down specific tweets where URL is clearly identified PTI ADS SA
New Delhi Feb 18 PTI The Delhi High Court Friday restrained publication of any defamatory material and the letter written to the Royal Historical Society in London alleging plagiarism by historian Vikram Sampath in relation to his work on Vinayak Damodar SavarkarJustice Amit Bansal passed the interim order against academicians Audrey Truschke Ananya Chakrabarti Rohit Chopra and Ashok Swain as well as freelance journalist Abhishek Baxi on a defamation lawsuit filed by SampathThe judge issued summons on the suit to the individuals as well as the Centre and Twitter and said that the plaintiff historian made out a prima facie case for grant on an ad-interim protection as the content of the letter was damaging his career and reputationThe continued publication of the letter has been causing considerable damage to the plaintiffs reputation and career Balance of convenience is also in his favour and irreparable damage will be caused if the injunction is not granted the court statedConsequently till the next date of hearing defendants no 1 Dr Audrey Truschke 2 Dr Ananya Chakrabarti 3 Dr Rohit Chopra 6 Abhishek Baxi and 7 Ashok Swain are restrained from publishing the letter dated February 11 2022 or any other defamatory material on Twitter as well as any other online or offline platforms it addedThe court noted Twitters stand that if ordered it would take down the specific tweets which are allegedly defamatory and placed the case for further hearing on April 1In the plea Sampath said he is the author of a critically acclaimed biography of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in LondonHe informed the court that earlier this month Truschke Chakrabarti and Chopra wrote to the Society making serious allegations of plagiarism with respect to the two-volume biography of SavarkarSubsequently Baxi and Swain took to Twitter to post defamatory tweets against the plaintiff it was statedLawyer Raghav Awasthi appearing for Sampath said the allegations of plagiarism were baseless considering that the piece contained due citations attributions and footnotesIve Sampath cited all authors As a scholar all I have is my reputation amongst my peers My academic reputation will go for a toss the lawyer saidIn the plea filed through lawyer Mukesh Sharma apart from seeking an injunction against the named individuals the plaintiff has also sought around Rs 2 crore as damagesThe plea has claimed that it is at the receiving end of an international smear campaign to discredit him because he has shown the academic courage and gumption to challenge the prevailing narrative around a historical figure like Sh VD SavarkarLawyer Jawahar Raja appearing for one of the individual defendants opposed the interim order and stated that the issue of plagiarism was wider than that of copyright infringement and there were sentences lifted verbatimI am not asking you to withdraw the letter Im just saying dont publish it I only need to take a prima facie view It is only for an ad-interim arrangement Justice Bansal saidSenior advocate Sajan Poovayya appearing for Twitter stated that the platform which is an intermediary cant police the letter but if ordered by the court it would take down specific tweets where URL is clearly identified PTI ADS SA
