The Madras High Court has issued notice on a defamation plea filed by TVK Minister Aadhav Arjuna against former Chief Minister and head of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), MK Stalin, seeking to restrain the latter and the DMK's IT Wing from making false and defamatory statements against him. The Minister has also sought damages of Rs, 1 Crore from Stalin and the party's IT Wing.

Justice Govindarajan Thilakavadi issued notice returnable by September 15th.

The Minister submitted that on June 8th, 2026, the IT wing of the party had posted on its social media page, linking the Minister to an alleged drug trafficking case. In the post, the party had stated that one individual, who was the mastermind behind a drug trafficking operation involving Rs 258 crores seized in Chennai and Ramanathapuram, was a close relative of the Minister.

The Minister submitted that the above statement was wholly false, fabricated, malicious and devoid of any merits and he was in no way connected to the accused in the drug trafficking case. The Minister argued that the post was made deliberately as part of a targeted campaign of disseminating false allegations to tarnish his image and lower his standing.

Arjuna also submitted that the post was not an innocent or inadvertent mistake but a deliberate decision to publish a highly damaging and career-destroying allegation without verification, with full knowledge that the content was incorrect and that such publication would create suspicion and hostility against him and damage his public life and standing.

Arjuna further argued that Stalin, being the President of the party, exercises control, supervision and overarching authority over the affairs of the party including its IT Wing. He thus argued that Stalin was responsible for the defamatory post.

He added that the subsequent deletion of the posts would show that the post was made without verification of the factual foundation and constitutes an admission of its falsity. He submitted that though he had issued a legal notice calling upon Stalin and the IT wing to tender an unconditional apology and remove the posts, the parties had issued a reply notice justifying their false publication. He added that the reply notice aggravated the injury already caused by reinforcing the false narrative and causing further damage.

Thus, he had approached the court to declare that the social media post made by DMK's IT Wing was defamatory, to restrain the party from publishing and circulating false and defamatory statements, direct the parties to publish an unconditional apology in both Tamil and English, remove the defamatory content and surrender all the electronic devices used to make the defamatory posts.

Arjuna has also sought damages, to the tune of Rs 1 crore, jointly and severally from the defendants as compensation for the damages caused to him by way of loss of reputation, personal injury, and mental agony.

Case Title: Aadhav Arjuna v MK Stalin and Another

Case No: CS 200 of 2026