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Delhi HC directs activist Saket Gokhale to remove tweets defaming Lakshmi Puri
Saket Gokhale made reference to a certain property purchased by Lakshmi Puri in Switzerland and also referred to her husband and Union minister of housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday directed activist Saket Gokhale to remove all his tweets ‘defaming’ Lakshmi Puri, the former assistant secretary-general to the United Nations. The activist had earlier made several posts on the social media platform making allegations regarding the sources of income of the diplomat and her husband, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri.
The Delhi high court took note of Gokhale's tweets on Tuesday and asked the activist to immediately remove them. If the tweets are not deleted within 24 hours, Twitter India has been directed to take down the posts. The court directed the social media firm to file its compliance report in the matter on the next date of hearing.
Gokhale, in his tweets on June 13 and 26, made reference to a certain property purchased by Lakshmi Puri in Switzerland and also referred to her husband Hardeep Singh Puri, the Union minister of housing and urban affairs.
Challenging the remarks made in the posts, Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri, through her counsel, filed a defamation suit seeking ₹5 crore in damages from Gokhale. She also sought direction from the court to take down or delete the tweets, wherein “false and factually incorrect, per-se defamatory, slanderous and libellous statements/imputations have been made by him” against her and her family.
The Delhi high court asked Gokhale to delete all the pertaining tweets but preserved his right to seek a modification to the order. The bench, according to reports, noted that while any citizen has to right to comment on a public servant's sources of income, the law of the land requires the concerned citizen to first seek clarification from the individual or approach the authorities regarding the matter before publishing their allegations.
