The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed its registry to inform former Team India cricket captain MS Dhoni and the law firm representing him about a defamation suit filed against the cricketer by his two former business partners Mihir Diwakar and Soumya Das.
The high court has listed the matter for further hearing on January 29.
The bench of Justice Prathiba M Singhand heard the pleas filed by Dhoni's former business partners who have moved the Delhi high court seeking a permanent injunction and damages against Dhoni, the news agency PTI reported.
They have also moved the court against Dhoni and several social media platforms and media houses to restrain them from making, publishing, circulating per se defamatory, ex facie false and malicious statements against them, according to the report.
Diwakar and Das filed the suit to restrict Dhoni and those acting on his behalf from making any kind of allegations that are of a defamotory nature.
The suit is in relation to the alleged breach of a contact between the two parties in 2017. Dhoni had entered into an agreement with Aarka Sports Management a company owned by Diwakar and his wife Das. The contract pertained to establishment of cricket academies in India and across the world.
As per the suit, Dhoni and those acting on behalf of him have allegedly made defamatory allegations against the owners of the Aarka Sports Management. Dhoni's allegation was the husband-wife duo (Diwakar and Das) duped the cricketer of nearly 15 crore after they failed to establish the cricket academies within the stipulated time period.
However, Diwakar said that even before the findings of the court, Dhoni's lawyer Dayanand Shamra conducted a press conference and made the defamatory allegations. Dhoni has filed a criminal case against them for their alleged violation of a contract signed in 2017.