Delhi HC Asks Saket Gokhale To Delete Tweets Against Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri

Saket Gokhale: The Delhi High court has asked activist Saket Gokhale to immediately delete tweets against the former Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations, Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri, and has stopped him from posting and scandalous tweets against her and her husband Hardeep Singh Puri, the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India.

On June 13 and June 26, Gokhale tweeted referring to some property purchase by Puri in Switzerland and also mentioned her husband in his tweets. Following which Puri filed a defamation suit against Gokhale seeking ₹ 5 crores as damages. The court passed the order on the suit and directed Gokhale that he removed the tweets.

According to reports, Justice C Hari Shankar said that if Gokhale fails to follow the court's order within 24 hours, Twitter will take down the said posts. The High Court ordered Gokhale to immediately delete all the tweets against Puri from his Twitter account, in which he makes the reference and all the connected tweets.

Reading the order, the court further said, "The defendant (Saket Gokhale) is restrained, pending further orders of this court, from posting any defamatory, scandalous, or factually incorrect tweets on his Twitter account against the plaintiff (Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri) or her husband."

Gokhale, who is a freelance journalist, was questioned by the High Court last week for tweeting against Puri without verifying facts from her or without approaching any government authority. As the right to reputation is recognised as a fundamental right, the court asked him how he could "vilify people" when his tweets were "prima facie incorrect".

The lawsuit by Puri against Gokhale has been filed through Karanjawala and Company, which is a dispute resolution firm. In the said lawsuit, Puri alleges that Gokhale has made "false and factually incorrect, per-se defamatory, slanderous and libellous statements/ imputations" in his tweets against her and her family.

The court has also issued summons to Gokhale asking him to file his written statement within four weeks, with the case listed before the Joint Registrar on September 10.