Delhi HC asks Twitter to take down Truschke's tweets alleging plagiarism by historian Vikram Sampath
New Delhi, Feb 24: The Delhi High Court Thursday directed social media giant Twitter to take down several tweets made by 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. Audrey 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 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 Rs two crore as damages.
The plea has claimed that it 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 Sh. V.D. 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.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
