Delhi HC Dismisses Saket Gokhale's Petition to Recall Defamation Damages in Lakshmi Puri Case

New Delhi [India], May 2 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed applications filed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saket Gokhale, who sought to recall an order directing him to pay Rs50 lakh in damages and publicly apologise to Lakshmi Puri, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, in a defamation case.
The bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Gaurav, while dismissing the petition moved by Saket Gokhle, appreciated the submissions made by Gokhle's lawyers Amarjit Singh Bedi and Harsha Vinoy.
Puri was represented by Maninder Singh, Senior Advocate, who was briefed by Karanjawala & Company through Meghna Mishra, Senior Partner, Palak Sharma, Shreyansh Rathi, and Rohit Kumar, Associates.
The court passed the order in the application filed by Saket Gokhale under Order IX Rule 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure, seeking the recall of the judgment and Decree dated July 1, 2024.
By way of the Judgement and Decree dated July 1, 2024, the Court had directed Gokhale to tender and publish a public apology to Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri within four weeks. Additionally, Gokhale was ordered to pay a sum of Rs. 50 lakhs to Ms Puri within eight weeks.
During the hearing, Gokhale's counsel had urged the court to adopt a "liberal approach" and conveyed that the MP does not currently have the financial means to pay the damages. However, the offer was firmly rejected by Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for Lakshmi Puri.
Recently, another bench of the Delhi High Court issued an order for the attachment of a portion of the salary of Saket Gokhale, a Member of Parliament from the Trinamool Congress (TMC). The court directed that the salary will remain under attachment until a total sum of Rs 50 lakh is deposited in the court.
This directive came during the hearing of a petition filed by former diplomat Lakshmi Puri, who accused Gokhale of failing to comply with the court's previous instructions in a defamation case she had filed against him.
In July of last year, the court had directed Gokhale to issue an apology to Puri and pay her Rs 50 lakh as damages. Justice Manmeet Pritam Arora's bench observed that no reasonable explanation had been provided for the non-payment of the decretal amount, warranting the issuance of an attachment order under Section 60(i) of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC).
The court reviewed the provisions of Section 60 of the CPC concerning the attachment of Saket Gokhale's salary, which is reported to be Rs 1.9 lakh per month. Referring to the legal framework, the court noted that, as per the CPC, up to two-thirds of the salary could be attached.
The defamation case originated in 2021 after Gokhale published a series of tweets questioning a property purchase made by Puri in Switzerland. His posts raised concerns regarding her and Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri's assets.
Additionally, Gokhale tagged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in his tweets, calling for an ED investigation.
In its July 2023 ruling, the High Court deemed the tweets defamatory, citing Shakespeare's Othello to emphasise the damage inflicted on Puri's reputation.
As part of the judgement, Gokhale was directed to publicly apologise in The Times of India and on his Twitter account, where the apology must remain pinned for six months.
Earlier, in July 2021, the court had issued an interim injunction, mandating Gokhale to remove the tweets within 24 hours and barring him from making further defamatory statements. (ANI)