Delhi HC summons Sudhir Chaudhary, DD News in defamation suit for branding activist as "anti-national"

The Delhi High Court on Monday issued summons to journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, his production company Essprit Productions and public broadcaster Prasar Bharati (DD News) in a defamation case filed by activist Vijay Sherawat..Sherawat has sued Chaudhary and DD News over a show aired on the public broadcaster on August 27, when Chaudhary alleged that during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest, Sherawat was talking about destroying Parliament and creating a Nepal-like situation in India.The suit seeks ₹5 crore in damages. .Justice Subramonium Prasad heard the case today and issued summons in the suit. The Court also issued notice on the interim injunction application filed by Sherawat, in which he has asked for directions to stop Chaudhary and other defendants from publishing/re-publishing or broadcasting the allegations. Justice Prasad said that the plea for interim injunction will be considered on September 22. "It is expected that on the next date of hearing, Defendants 1, 2 and 3 [Chaudhary, Essar and DD] would be ready for advancing arguments on the interim stay," the Court said in its order. .As per the defamation suit, an episode of the programme "DECODE", anchored by Chaudhary, identified Sherawat and displayed his image as the person who had raised slogans saying, "Sansad bhawan ukhad diya jayega... Nepal bana diya jayega."Sherawat claims that he did not make the said statement, that it was made by a different and unidentified person at a different event and that the two men are visibly different.The suit further alleges that Chaudhary and others carried out no verification before the telecast, gave Sherawat no opportunity to respond and used a low-quality version of available footage so that the two persons could not be distinguished.According to the plaint, within hours of the broadcast, the clip was republished across X and Instagram and the plaintiff received open threats to his life, including threats to shoot him, to behead him and to break his limbs, with one user seeking his home address to carry out the assault.The suit states that Sherawat posted a clarification on his Instagram account on 31.07.2026, but his account of approximately 4,224 followers could not match the reach of a national broadcast that claims 1.4 billion digital views..The suit has been filed through Advocates Pushp Sharma, Aditya Narayan Shukla, Jai Allagh and Prasoon Shekhar.