Delhi HC directs activist Saket Gokhale to delete alleged defamatory tweets against Lakshmi Puri
In an interim order, Justice C Hari Shankar also directed Twitter to take down the tweets in case Gokhale fails to do so himself.
FollowDelhi High Court on Monday directed Congress supporter Saket Gokhale to take down the defamatory tweets casting aspersions of impropriety against ex-IFS officer Lakshmi Puri for her house in Switzerland.
The court also restrained Gokhale from posting scandalous tweets against Lakshmi Puri and her husband Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri during the pendency of the defamation suit.
Justice C Hari Shanker also directed Twitter to take down the tweets from Gokhale’s account in case he fails to delete them within 24 hours of the order. The court asked Twitter to file a compliance report before the next date of hearing.
The court passed the order on a defamation suit filed by Lakshmi Puri seeking Rs 5 crore damages from Gokhale and a direction that he deletes the tweets. Gokhale last week refused to take down the tweets when asked by the court.
She alleged that in the tweets, Gokhale has made false and factually incorrect, per-se defamatory, slanderous and libellous statements/imputations against her and her family.
“How can you be vilifying people like this? Knock off these things from the website,” said Justice Shanker at the outset of hearing last week. “If you have a problem with the public functionaries, you must go to them first.”
Gokhale in his tweets last month had referred to a property purchased by Puri in Switzerland and raised questions regarding her and her husband’s assets. He had tagged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the tweets while seeking an inquiry by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Puri, who was the former Assistant Secretary-General at the United States, in her suit said the tweets are “maliciously motivated and designed accordingly, laced with canards and entail deliberate twisting of facts”.
The court also issued a summons to Gokhale on the main suit and directed him to file his written statement within four weeks and listed the case before the Joint Registrar on September 10.
The court remarked that the right to reputation is a protected fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, the court had said that while it is not restraining Gokhale or any other citizen to comment on public servant or retired public servant, the law did not permit any person aggrieved by retired public servant’s or officer’s declaration of assets to publish allegations without seeking clarification from the person or approaching authorities.
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