Madras High Court issues interim injunction against Rangarajan Narasimhan for allegedly defaming orator Dushyanth Sridhar. Court also restrains activist from targeting lawyers appearing against him.
Chennai: The Madras High Court has passed an important order prohibiting temple activist Rangarajan Narasimhan from making any negative or defamatory comments against well-known Vedic scholar and speaker Dushyanth Sridhar on social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.
The order will remain in force until a defamation case filed by Sridhar is fully decided.
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This decision was made by Justice K. Kumaresh Babu, who issued an interim injunction — a temporary order — to prevent the activist from causing any further harm to the orator’s reputation online.
Earlier this year, Dushyanth Sridhar had filed a defamation case seeking Rs 1 crore in damages. He claimed that the activist had already posted several abusive and insulting remarks about him on social media, which damaged his image and reputation.
Sridhar, who lives in Bengaluru, filed the case in Chennai. Since the defendant, Rangarajan Narasimhan, resides in Srirangam (Tiruchi district), Sridhar also filed a request asking the court to allow him to file the case in Chennai.
He argued that a large number of his followers are based in Chennai, and so part of the issue (or “cause of action”) happened in the city.
Senior Advocate Satish Parasaran, who appeared for Sridhar, supported this argument by citing two foreign court decisions: a 2011 ruling by the House of Lords in the UK in the case of Turner vs Grovit, and a 2022 ruling by the High Court of Australia in Dow Jones and Co Inc vs Gutnick.
He explained that the plaintiff (Sridhar) has the right to file the case in a court of his convenience when part of the damage occurred there.
The judge accepted these points and, on June 23, 2025, allowed the application to file the case in Chennai. He then ordered the High Court Registry to give the case a number and begin proceedings.
After that, the court took up Sridhar’s request to stop the activist from making more such statements while the case was ongoing. The activist was given four weeks to submit his reply.
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During the hearing, Justice Babu observed that the activist had already admitted to posting certain statements about Sridhar on social media. However, the activist claimed that his comments were not abusive or defamatory.
But the judge disagreed. He said,
“This court, on going through the statements made by the respondent, prima facie finds that such statements are defamatory in nature. Hence, there shall be an order of interim injunction as prayed for.”
Rahul Balaji, the lawyer representing Sridhar, told the court that Rangarajan Narasimhan often makes objectionable and offensive remarks against many people on social media.
To support his argument, he even showed the court screenshots of statements the activist had made against a senior advocate. The activist had reportedly made those remarks to discourage the senior lawyer from representing Sridhar.
After reviewing those comments, Justice Babu was convinced that the remarks made against the senior advocate were offensive and targeted.
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The judge noted:
“Such statements have been made challenging the learned senior counsel who had appeared for the applicant… They are in the nature of making the learned senior counsel to keep him away from appearing in the cases.”
Because of this behavior, the court not only barred the activist from posting anything defamatory about Sridhar but also restrained him from making any kind of statements in the future against the lawyers who appear for his opponents in legal cases.
Case Title:
Dushyanth Sridhar vs Rangarajan Narasimhan
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