New Delhi, Mar 4 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to grant urgent interim relief to historian Vikram Sampath who sought the removal from social media certain allegedly defamatory content concerning accusations of plagiarism by academician Audrey Truschke, saying that the historian cannot curtail discussion in the academic world.

Justice Amit Bansal told Sampath, who has filed a lawsuit against Truschke and others for writing a letter to the Royal Historical Society in London making allegations of plagiarism against him concerning the two-volume biography of V D Savarkar, that he "cannot get an injunction against 1000 people who are talking about this”.

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The judge remarked that the defamation case was against certain defendants and he “cannot keep filing applications” and that he should enforce the two earlier orders passed in his favour.

Sampath's grievance was concerning Truschke publishing an “open letter of support by more than 75 concerned scholars for Ananya Chakravarti, Rohit Chopra, and Audrey Truschke regarding their service to the profession and academic freedom in calling attention to Vikram Sampath's plagiarism."

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“You cannot curtail discussion on the subject in the academic world. Your cause of action is only qua the defendants who are allegedly defaming you. So for that, the court has passed an order but if the academicians of the world are of the view that you had plagiarized or something, you cannot get an injunction against 1000 people who are talking about this,” the court said while hearing an application for urgent relief in respect of the letter.

The court issued notice on the application which seeks the removal of the allegedly defamatory content and asked Sampath to enforce the earlier orders passed in his favour.

“They are well within their rights to write this letter. What is defamatory in this letter?” the court asked.

“If some academicians are of the view that you have plagiarized… see, ultimately you cannot stop the world. You also get a letter circulated in your support. You also get a letter circulated that what you are saying is correct. You cannot curtail opinions which are appearing on social media. I am not going to pass any order,” the judge said.

On February 18, the court had issued summons to the defendants as well as the Centre and Twitter on Sampath's suit and said that the plaintiff historian made out a prima facie case for the grant on ad-interim protection as the content of the letter were damaging his career and reputation.

“Consequently, till the next date of hearing, defendants Audrey Truschke, Ananya Chakrabarti, Rohit Chopra Abhishek Baxi, and 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 had added.

On February 24, the court had directed Twitter to take several tweets made by Truschke over the allegations of plagiarism.

The plea has claimed that Sampath, represented by lawyer Raghav Awasthi, 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. V.D. Savarkar” and sought around Rs two crore as damages. PTI ADS

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