Madras High Court Orders Sun TV to Pay Rs 10 Lakh Damages to Actor R Sukanya

The Madras High Court has dismissed an appeal by Sun TV Network Ltd. and upheld a trial court decree directing the broadcaster to pay Rs 10,00,500 in damages to actor R Sukanya. In a judgment delivered on June 5, Justice K Kumaresh Babu ruled that the television network held editorial control over a defamatory 1996 broadcast featuring forest brigand Veerappan and failed to remove the offending content before airing it.

The legal dispute began nearly 30 years ago following an April 17, 1996, telecast on Sun TV. The broadcast occurred during a highly charged political period in Tamil Nadu, just weeks before crucial parliamentary and Assembly elections.

The program, titled 'Nerukku Ner' (Face to Face), featured an interview conducted by journalist and Nakkheeran editor R Rajagopal, also known as Nakkheeran Gopal, with the fugitive forest brigand Veerappan. During the interview, Veerappan made false allegations linking Sukanya, then a leading actor in South Indian cinema, to a political scandal involving the son of former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao.

Sukanya filed a lawsuit in 1996 seeking damages and an injunction, stating the allegations were entirely false and severely damaged her reputation among her family, friends, and the general public. She pointed out that while the broadcaster muted certain expletives in the interview, it deliberately chose to retain the defamatory remarks about her.

The case was initially filed in the Madras High Court but was later transferred to a city civil court in Chennai due to changes in pecuniary jurisdiction. In April 2015, the trial court ruled in Sukanya's favor, ordering Sun TV to pay damages. Sun TV subsequently appealed the ruling.

During the appeal, Sun TV argued that it served merely as a platform for an interview recorded by a third party. The network highlighted that it had displayed a disclaimer stating the views belonged to Veerappan, and noted that a Tamil magazine had published an expression of regret after Sukanya issued a legal notice.

However, Justice Babu pointed to a telecast agreement between Sun TV and Nakkheeran. The agreement gave Sun TV the authority to 'edit, cut, delete or modify' the footage. The original nine-hour interview had been edited down to four hours by the broadcaster.

The court ruled that because Sun TV reserved the right to edit the content, it had a duty to verify the interview's contents before telecasting it. The judge also criticized Sun TV for publishing its expression of regret in a magazine instead of broadcasting an apology on its own channel, viewing this choice as an indication of malice.

The judgment concludes a three-decade-long legal battle for Sukanya, who was at the peak of her acting career when she first approached the court in 1996.