Shivangi Prakash-
The Delhi High Court took issue on Thursday with activist Saket Gokhale’s tweets saying that former UN Assistant Secretary-General Lakshmi Puri had purchased a property in Switzerland that was disproportionate to her income.
Justice C Hari Shankar questioned Gokhale on how he may vilify others, especially since his tweets were presumptively false.
“How can you be vilifying people like this? Show me that before you put this on public domain, you approached the plaintiff,” the Court said.
Puri had filed a defamation complaint demanding Rs 5 crore in damages as well as an order to take down the tweets, and the Court had reserved its decision.
Puri filed a complaint with the High Court through Karanjawala & Co., alleging that the tweets were defamatory, malicious, and based on incorrect information.
Puri’s spouse, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, was mentioned in Gokhale’s tweets, implying that Puri had purchased a property in Switzerland.
Puri had already sent Gokhale with a legal notice demanding that he remove the tweets, but he had refused.
“He says you are not the court, so we had to approach the Court,” Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for Puri, told the Court on Thursday.
The tweets, according to Singh, were malicious and were sent out despite Gokhale’s knowledge that the claims were untrue.
Singh further stated that Puri’s older daughter assisted her in obtaining the funds needed to purchase the apartment in Switzerland. Puri and her husband have declared all of their assets, according to him, and Gokhale’s remarks are clearly defamatory.
“It is a case of ex facie defamation. If I may use a Hindi phrase, it is a case of Ulta chor kotwal ko daante. When we sent the legal notice, he said he was being harassed,” Singh submitted.
Sarim Naved, Gokhale’s lawyer, argued that as a citizen, Gokhale has the right to investigate the assets of public officials.
The Bench demanded to show that the plaintiff was approached before putting this on the public domain
“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.
“As a voter, I have to be satisfied that income is accounted for,“ replied Naved.
“Go to the Election Commission to be satisfied. Before you throw mud at someone, you must do a due diligence exercise,“ the Court said.
The order will be pronounced on Tuesday, July 13.
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