[BREAKING] Delhi High Court directs Saket Gokhale to delete allegedly defamatory tweets against Lakshmi Puri [READ JUDGMENT]

The Delhi High Court today directed journalist Saket Gokhale to take down his tweets alleging that former diplomat Lakshmi Puri had purchased certain property in Switzerland disproportionate to her income.

The order pronounced by Justice C Hari Shankar also directed Twitter to take down the tweets in case Gokhale fails to do so himself.

Gokhale has also been barred from posting any defamatory content against Puri and her husband, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Suri, on any platform.

The Court issued summons in the main suit, and gave Gokhale four weeks' time to file replies to the suit. Puri has been given two weeks thereafter to file counter. The matter has been listed for September 10 before the Registrar (Judicial).

The directions passed by the Court are:

(i) The defendant is directed to immediately delete, from his Twitter account, all Tweets against the plaintiff, to which the present plaint makes reference, as well as all connected Tweets which may form part of the trail of Tweets by the defendant against the plaintiff.

(ii) The defendant is restrained, pending further orders of this Court, from posting any defamatory or scandalous or factually incorrect Tweet, on his Twitter account, against the plaintiff or her husband.

(iii) In the event of the defendant failing to comply with direction (i) supra within 24 hours of the pronouncement of this order, Twitter, Inc. is directed to take down the tweets figuring on the following URLs, as well as all tweets which may figure in the trail thereof.

The order was passed in the defamation suit filed by Puri seeking damages to the tune of Rs 5 crore, besides an order to take down the tweets.

Puri moved the High Court through law firm Karanjawala & Co. claiming that the tweets were defamatory, malicious and based on false information.

Gokhale's tweets hinted that Puri purchased certain property in Switzerland and also made references to her spouse, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

The notice sent to Gokhale stated that despite Puri's response on the substantive points of contention raised by Gokhale "continued to send out tweets in order to create a false narrative despite clear clarifications offered on the platform."

Further, it stated that Gokhale falsely claimed that Puri's income could have only been Rs 10-12 lakh as she was on deputation from Government of India to UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

On the last date of hearing, Gokhale's lawyer Sarim Naved said that as a citizen, his client has the right to go into the assets of public functionaries.

"Show me that before you put this on public domain, you approached the plaintiff," the Bench demanded.

"I do not need to," replied Naved.

"So any Tom, Dick and Harry can write anything vilificatory against anyone on the internet?" the Court asked.

Appearing for Puri, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh contended that the tweets were malafide and put out despite Gokhale being aware that the allegations were false.

"I will demonstrate how mala fide this gentleman is. Such uncontrolled people. I have worked for 28 years in the service. During my leave, I worked with United Nations," Singh submitted.

Singh further claimed that Puri's elder daughter had helped her with the money to purchase the flat in Switzerland.

"My elder daughter who is a banker in New York gave me 6 lakh Swiss francs and I had mortgage of 10 lakh Swiss francs. I have put these documents before Court. I was on leave, not on deputation as alleged by Gokhale. He knows everything. It is only an edifice created to blackmail me," Singh contended.

Singh said that Puri and her husband have declared all their assets and Gokhale's tweets amounted to a clear case of defamation.

The Court had reserved its order on July 8.

Team from Karanjawala & Co. including Partner Meghna Mishra along with Advocates Dheeraj P. Deo and Tarun Sharma briefed Maninder Singh for Lakshmi Puri.

[Read Judgment]