Delhi High Court Directs Saket Gokhale To Delete Defamatory Tweets Against Former IFS Officer Lakshmi Puri

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday has found activist Saket Gokhale's tweets against former Indian Assistant Secretary-General to the United Nations, Lakshmi Puri with regards to the disproportionate assets allegation to be prima facie defamatory, reports Live Law.

The court has ordered Gokahle to immediately delete the defamatory tweets posted against former Indian diplomat. It also restrained him from posting “defamatory or scandalous or factually incorrect tweets” against her or her husband Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

The judgement pronounced by a single judge bench of Justice C Hari Shankar also directed Twitter to take down the tweets in case Gokhale fails to do so himself.

Additionally, the court has asked Twitter to file a compliance report before the next date of hearing. The court passed the order in a suit filed by Puri for deletion of the tweets and seeking damages to the tune of Rs 5 crore.

Earlier, the High Court had come down heavily on Gokhale for putting out allegedly defamatory tweets against former diplomat Puri without due diligence.

“How can you be vilifying people like this. Knock off these things from the website,” said Justice C Hari Shanker has said last week at the outset of hearing. “If you have a problem with the public functionaries, you must go to them first.”