The Delhi High Court today ordered Twitter to take down five more of historian Dr Audrey Truschke’s tweets against Dr Vikram Sampath which were allegedly defamatory. The court’s order came after Truschke failed to appear in the court proceedings initiated on the petition filed by Sampath. The tweets were connected to the letters accusing Sampath of plagiarism over his two-volumed biography of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the publication of which was injuncted by the court earlier this year.
The order was passed after Sampath moved a fresh application against Trushcke seeking directions from the court to take down the tweets.
“Despite ad interim injunction passed by this Court vide orders 18th February, 2022 and 24th February, 2022, the defendant no.1 continues to post defamatory material against the plaintiff on the platform of the defendant no. 4/Twitter. Further, the defendant no.1 has failed to enter appearance before this court,” said Justice Amit Bansal in an order, reported Live Law.
The court had earlier restrained Truschke, Dr Ananya Chakrabarti and Dr Rohit Chopra from publishing any more letters accusing Sampath of plagiarism.
On February 11, three US-based academics had written a letter to the Royal Historical Society where Sampath is a fellow. They urged the body to put Sampath’s work under the scanner.
Terming it a “smear campaign” aimed at playing him down for showing the “academic courage and gumption to challenge the prevailing narrative around a historical figure,” Sampath has claimed damages worth Rs 2 crore and 100 rupees and a permanent injunction against the said defendants.
He further informed the court that he had properly cited the work of other scholars wherever necessary. On February 18, the High Court had restrained Truschke and others from publishing any defamatory content targetting Sampath in the matter. The high court had on February 24 ordered Twitter to take down five tweets put out by Truschke against Sampath.
The matter has been posted for hearing on July 28.