HC Asks Twitter to Take Down Truschke’s Tweets Alleging Plagiarism by Historian Vikram Sampath

New Delhi, Feb 24 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Thursday directed social media giant Twitter to take down several tweets made by American academician Audrey Truschke against historian Dr. Vikram Sampath over allegations of plagiarism by him concerning his work on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

A defamation lawsuit has been filed by Sampath claiming that academicians Dr. Truschke, Dr. Ananya Chakrabarti, and Dr. Rohit Chopra wrote a letter to the Royal Historical Society in London making serious allegations of plagiarism against him with respect to the two-volume biography of Savarkar.

Justice Amit Bansal’s direction came while hearing a fresh application by Sampath in which he said that pursuant to the February 11 letter, Truschke and others sent another communication to the society alleging further plagiarism in his work and this was also posted on Twitter and Facebook.

The court, in an interim order on February 18, had restrained the publication of any defamatory material and the letter written to the society making allegations of plagiarism.

The interim order was passed against academicians Truschke, Chakrabarti, Chopra, and Ashok Swain as well as freelance journalist Abhishek Baxi on the defamation suit.

The court also issued summons to Facebook as the letter was also posted on the social media platform.

On February 18, the court had issued a summons on the suit to the individuals as well as the Centre and Twitter, 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.

“The continued publication of the letter has been causing considerable damage to the plaintiff’s reputation and career. Balance of convenience is also in his favour and irreparable damage will be caused if the injunction is not granted,” the court had said.

“Consequently, till the next date of hearing, defendants no 1 (Dr. Audrey Truschke), 2 (Dr. Ananya Chakrabarti), 3 (Dr. Rohit Chopra), 6 (Abhishek Baxi), and 7 (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.

The court had noted Twitter’s stand that if ordered, it would take down the specific tweets which are allegedly defamatory and placed the case for further hearing on April 1.

In the plea, the plaintiff said that he is the author of a critically acclaimed biography of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in London.

The plaintiff informed the court that earlier this month, Truschke, Chakrabarti, and Chopra wrote to the Society making serious allegations of plagiarism with respect to the two-volume biography of Savarkar.

Subsequently, Baxi and Swain took to Twitter to post defamatory tweets against the plaintiff, it was stated.

Lawyer Raghav Awasthi, appearing for Sampath, had said the allegations of plagiarism were baseless considering that the piece contained due citations, attributions, and footnotes.

“I have cited all authors. As a scholar, all I have is my reputation amongst my peers. My academic reputation will go for a toss,” the lawyer said.

In the plea filed through lawyer Mukesh Sharma, apart from seeking an injunction against the named individuals, the plaintiff has also sought around two crore rupees as damages.

The plea has claimed that Sampath 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 Savarkar .

Counsel for one of the individual defendants had opposed the interim order and stated that the issue of plagiarism was wider than that of copyright infringement and there were sentences lifted verbatim.

Twitter’s counsel had stated that the platform, which is an intermediary, can’t police the letter but if ordered by the court, it would take down specific tweets whose URL is clearly identified.