Delhi HC awards Rs 5 lakh damages to TV Today in Rajdeep Sardesai defamation case

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has awarded Rs 5 lakh as general compensatory damages to TV Today Network in a defamation suit arising from a series of social media posts directed at senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.

The judgment, delivered by Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav on September 3, 2025, found that the tweets posted in 2020 by Anurag Srivastava were “highly defamatory” and caused reputational harm to both the anchor and the media company that owns channels India Today and Aaj Tak.

The case was triggered in August 2020 after Sardesai conducted a high-profile interview with actor Rhea Chakraborty amid the Sushant Singh Rajput death probe. Following the interview, Srivastava published several tweets from his social media handles that TV Today argued were baseless and damaging.

TV Today argued that the defamatory content not only caused reputational damage but also hurt its business. The company presented financial data showing that its revenues dropped from Rs 899.57 crore in FY 2019–20 to Rs 819.92 crore in FY 2020–21, a decline of about Rs 79 crore. Advertisers, it claimed, expressed disaffection following the online attacks, which affected ad rates and inventory.

The company initially sought over Rs 2 crore in damages but later limited its claim to general compensation.

Justice Kaurav noted that while Srivastava had complied with interim orders and refrained from repeating his conduct, the tweets were “irresponsible, unsubstantiated and defamatory.” The court emphasised that reputational harm cannot be quantified with exact mathematical precision but warrants compensation.

Quoting principles from international and Indian precedents, including Jameel (Mohammed) v. Wall Street Journal Europe and Abhijit Mishra v. Wipro Ltd., the court held that general damages were appropriate and fixed them at Rs 5 lakh, significantly below the original claim. Each party was directed to bear its own costs.

The court emphasised the need for accountability in online speech. The suit against co-defendants Twitter Inc. and Google LLC had been withdrawn earlier, leaving only the issue of damages to be decided.