Madras High Court Restrains India Research Watch From Publishing Articles About Saveetha Institute Of Medical Science Without Prior Intimation
The Madras High Court has restrained India Research Watch from publishing articles in connection with the functioning of Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences without prior approval from the Institute.
Justice P Dhanabal directed Research Watch to issue notice to the institute regarding queries or gist of articles to the email Id of the institute and await a response for 72 hours. The court added that if any response is received within 72 hours, the organisation could publish the statement along with the response. However, if no such response was received, the organisation could publish the article.
“The respondents shall not publish any statements on any social media or public platforms regarding the activities of the applicant without causing a notice on the applicant of the queries or gist of the articles to the email I.D. of the applicant, for a response from the applicant. If any response is received within 72 hours, then the respondents may make a statement and in doing so, they shall also publish the response received by him with prominence. If no such response is received within the aforesaid period, they shall proceed to publish the article,” the court said.
The court, however, added that the organisation was at liberty to make statements based on public records available, including court records.
“If such statements are based upon public records including the Court records, then the respondents are at liberty to make a fair comment/criticism only on the materials available in the public domain,” the court added.
The court was hearing a plea by Saveetha Institute seeking to restrain the research organisation from publishing defamatory content against the institute. The institute also sought to immediately remove the articles and to issue a formal interim public apology for defaming the institute.
The institute argued that it was one of the top dental institutions in the world, affiliated with the Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS) Chennai and had been consistently ranked No. 1 in India by the NIRF for 3 consecutive years. The institute argued that it was renowned for advanced dental education, research, and clinical training and its students and faculties had been contributing to high impact journals. Saveetha argued that it had the highest publication count in Indi with over 11,000 publications in SCOPUS and 7000 in Web of Science, raising its academic profile.
Saveetha argued that the respondent organisation had been making defamatory article against the Institute and targeting it continuously without proof and with false statistics and false allegations. It has been argued that the organisation had flagged Saveetha's publications as suspicious, and the same was done with a political agenda. It was submitted that the respondents had even posted Saveetha's advertisement, labelling it as “education scam”, which was a highly defamatory and outrageous claim, demonstrating a clear intent to harm Saveetha's reputation.
The respondents, on the other hand, claimed that the statements made in the journal are truthful, based on real and concrete data and has been published in public interest, constituting fair comment. The respondents submitted that the researchers of the Institute have used self-citations as a game to artificially spike up its citation rates. The respondents also denied the allegation that they were targeting Saveetha and submitted that they were consistently flagging research misconduct.
The court observed that the veracity of the argument was a matter of trial and needed elaborate evidences. The court also noted that the interim prayer sought by the Institute could not be granted since the main prayer itself was for mandatory injunction to remove defamatory articles.
Noting that the court had to balance freedom of speech with reputation and privacy, the court directed the organisation to publish articles with prior intimation to the institute.
Counsel for Applicant: M/s. S. Silambanan, Senior Advocate for M/s. Kaavya Silambanan Associates
Counsel for Respondent: Mr. Suhrith Parthasarathy for M/s. Ashwini Vaidialingam
Case Title: Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences v. India Research Watch and Others
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Mad) 28
Case No: O.A No.467 of 2025 A. Nos.2238 of 2025 and 2239 of 2025 in C.S. No.100 of 2025