Apologise, pay Rs 50 lakh to Lakshmi Puri: Delhi High Court to TMC leader in defamation case
Apologise, pay Rs 50 lakh to Lakshmi Puri: Delhi High Court to TMC leader in defamation case
The Delhi High Court Monday directed TMC leader Saket Gokhale to apologise and pay Rs 50 lakh damages to former diplomat Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri, wife of Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, in a 2021 defamation case.
A single-judge bench of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani ordered Gokhale to apologise to Puri, a former assistant secretary general of the UN, on his X handle, which should be retained for “six months from the date it is put out” as well as publish it in a leading English daily in four weeks. The damages should be paid within eight weeks, the HC said.
“The bell can‟t be unrung. The damage caused to the plaintiff's (Puri) reputation by the offending tweets cannot be effaced completely. An express, unreserved and unconditional apology is the very least that is required from defendant No.1 (Gokhale) for having put out the offending tweets… Furthermore, defendant No.1 is restrained from publishing any further tweet or any other content on any social media or other electronic platform in relation to the imputations made in the offending tweets," the HC directed.
In July 2021, the HC had passed an interim order, restraining Gokhale from posting any defamatory, scandalous or factually incorrect tweets against Puri or her husband.
In her lawsuit filed in HC, Puri had claimed that Gokhale, who posted certain tweets about her, had “tarnished her good name and reputation by making reckless and false allegations” in relation to her financial affairs in the “context of an apartment that she owns in Geneva, Switzerland”.
Justice Bhambhani observed that very few allegations can “hurt a person associated with public office” more than an allegation of “financial impropriety”.
“... What is quite evident is that defendant No.1 was actually targeting the plaintiff’s husband, who was (and is even today) a serving Minister under the Central Government, since it otherwise defies reason as to why defendant No.1 would target the plaintiff who had retired from foreign service back in 2011,” the judge said.
The court said that if Gokhale's intention was only to put a “bona fide question” to Puri or to her husband, that would not have been objectionable provided he had posed the question “as a query and had waited for an answer before putting out anything further in the public domain”.
After examining Puri’s “answers” and on record regarding the “source of funds” she used to purchase the apartment, the HC said it is “satisfied” that what was stated by Gokhale in the “offending tweets is evidently incorrect, false and untrue”.
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