Delhi High Court Issues Notice On Lakshmi Puri's Plea Against TMC's Saket Gokhale Alleging Non-Compliance Of Ruling In Defamation Suit

Lakshmi Puri, former Indian Assistant Secretary-General to the United Nations, on Monday (December 23) moved the Delhi High Court alleging that Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale failed to comply with a ruling asking him to put an apology on social media and pay Rs. 50 lakh damages to her in the defamation suit against him.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora issued notice in Puri's plea which seeks seek execution of the judgment passed on July 01.

The Court also directed Gokhale to file an affidavit disclosing all his assets, properties and bank accounts within four weeks.

“Let an affidavit be filed by the judgment debtor (Gokhale) making full disclosure of all his assets, monies, properties- movable and immovable, including the bank accounts and deposits in his name within four week,” the Court ordered.

Senior Advocate Maninder Singh appearing for Puri submitted that Gokhale failed to comply with the judgment directing him to publish the apology by the end of July which was to be kept on his handle for six months.

He said that Gokhale had full knowledge about the ruling which was evident from his tweet made on July 02 stating that he will file an appeal against the judgment.

Singh said that till date, no appeal has been filed by Gokhale and no compliance was made by him of the ruling in question.

The Court issued notice in the execution petition and listed the matter for hearing in February, 2025.

The defamation suit was filed by Puri being aggrieved by Gokhale's tweets referring to a property purchased by her in Switzerland. In the tweets, Gokhale raised questions regarding her and her husband, Union Minister Hardeep Puri's assets. He had also tagged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman in the tweets and sought an ED inquiry.

In the judgment, a coordinate bench, while decreeing the suit in favour of Puri, asked Gokhale to put an apology in Times of India. He was also directed to put the apology on his Twitter handle, which has to stay for 6 months.

Quoting William Shakespeare's Othello in the judgment, the court had held Gokhale was making “roving allegations” against Lakshmi Puri and her husband Hardeep Puri.

The suit contended that Gokhale's tweets were false and defamatory. It was Puri's case that the tweets were “maliciously motivated and designed accordingly, laced with canards and entail deliberate twisting of facts”.

In July 2021, a coordinate bench ruled in favour of Puri while deciding the interim injunction application in the suit.

The court had then directed Gokhale to take down the tweets in question within 24 hours. He was also restrained from posting any further defamatory material against Puri.

Case Title: LAKSHMI MURDESHWAR PURI v. SAKET GOKHALE