Zoho files ₹10 crore defamation suit in Madras High Court against Flexype over LinkedIn posts

Zoho Corporation has filed a commercial suit before the Madras High Court seeking ₹10 crore in damages and injunctive relief against Flexype Technologies Pvt Ltd and its co-founder Azeem Hussain over allegedly defamatory social media posts concerning its accounting software [Zoho corporation Vs FlexyPe].The matter came up for hearing on Wednesday before Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy who expressed reservations about the Court assuming jurisdiction solely on the basis that the content was accessible online.Zoho argued that the content has wide reach and that the impact of the alleged disparagement was felt in Chennai where its business operations are based.However, the Court noted that the plaint did not clearly set out jurisdictional facts such as the extent of business impact in Chennai. The counsel for Zoho acknowledged that the pleadings could have been better drafted.The Court then permitted Zoho to file an additional affidavit to substantiate its claim that part of the cause of action arose within Chennai.The matter will be heard next on April 17..The suit arose from LinkedIn posts made by Hussain, who alleged serious discrepancies in Zoho Books. He claimed that failed transactions were incorrectly recorded as successful payments, leading to financial mismatches and operational distress for his company..According to Zoho, these statements are false and misleading. The company contended that the issue flagged by Flexype was not due to any flaw in Zoho Books but was caused by incorrect payment status updates from a third-party payment gateway tool. Zoho further claimed that despite this being clarified during the course of its internal investigation, the defendants continued to publish and amplify allegations against it..In its suit, Zoho has sought a decree directing the defendants to pay ₹10 crore towards damages for reputational harm. It has also sought a permanent injunction to remove all disparaging posts across social media platforms, including the LinkedIn post dated April 3, 2026, and to cease further publication of such content..Additionally, Zoho has sought directions for issuance of a clarificatory statement by the defendants on LinkedIn, acknowledging that the issue was not attributable to Zoho and tendering an apology for the statements made..Senior Advocate MS Krishnan appeared for Zoho.