Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri sought Rs 5,00,00,000 in damages from freelance journalist and activist Saket Gokhale while the court was hearing a defamation suit on July 8, filed by her.
Puri alleged that Gokhale allegedly posted defamatory tweets against the former Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations Lakshmi Puri, without verifying the facts from her or approaching any government authority. The Delhi High Court questioned Gokhale for the same on Thursday.
Lakshmi Puri Defamation Case
Gokhale made reference to a certain property purchased by Puri in Switzerland and also referred to her husband Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in the concerned tweets on June 13 and 26, according to a report by NDTV .
The high court asked Gokhale how he can defame people, particularly when the tweets put out by him were incorrect, based on preliminary evidence.
Justice C Hari Shankar asked Gokhale's counsel "Show me before you put out tweets, you sought to clarify these facts from the plaintiff." To the same, his counsel argued that there was no such requirement under the law and that he had tagged the finance minister in one of the tweets.
"So according to your understanding of the law, any Tom, Dick and Harry can write anything against anyone on the Internet," the judge said , "irrespective of the fact that it destroys and damages the reputation of a person,". The Court reserved its order on the suit for July 13.
Stating that one has to exercise due diligence before putting out anything in public, the judge questioned Gokhale, "You tell me what exercise you have carried out with public authorities before putting out the tweets on social media." He then asked whether Gokhale was ready to take down the tweets. However, Gokhale's counsel Srim Naved responded negatively.
Senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing Puri , terming the tweets in question as defamatory, malicious and based on false information, said , "It is a case of ex-facie per se defamation. When I sent him (Gokhale) a legal notice, he said he was being harassed."
Naved said that as Puri's husband is a Union Minister, his assets, along with his spouse should be in the public domain but in this case, the money received from their daughter was not in the public domain.
However, Singh argued that Puri does not hold any public office for these details to be put in the public domain.
People who have served the country with utmost integrity are being accused by people who are nothing, Singh added.
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