Saket Gokhale of Trinamool Ordered to Pay Rs 50 Lakh in Defamation Case

The legal battle between Mr. Gokhale and Lakshmi Puri revolves around tweets made by Mr. Gokhale on June 13 and June 26, 2021. In these tweets, Gokhale alleged that Puri had purchased property in Switzerland disproportionate to her income and also mentioned her husband, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri.

Lakshmi Puri filed a lawsuit in 2021 through the legal firm Karanjawala and Company, accusing Mr. Gokhale of making false, defamatory, slanderous, and libelous statements about her and her family. She argued that Mr. Gokhale’s claims about her income were baseless, as she was on deputation from the Government of India to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Representing Lakshmi Puri, Senior advocate Maninder Singh argued in 2021 that the tweets were defamatory, malicious, and based on false information. He emphasized that Ms. Puri did not hold any public office at the time, and hence, her private transactions should not have been subjected to public scrutiny without her consent.

He criticized Mr. Gokhale for not verifying the facts before making public allegations, describing his actions as an attack on Puri’s integrity. The court’s ruling included instructions for Mr. Gokhale to issue a public apology on social media, which must remain on his handle for at least six months, and to publish the apology in a leading national newspaper within eight weeks.

The court also ordered Mr. Gokhale to comply with these instructions. On the other hand, Mr. Gokhale’s counsel, Advocate Sarim Naved, contended that as a citizen, Mr. Gokhale had the right to question the assets of public figures.

Naved argued that the involvement of public money justified Mr. Gokhale’s scrutiny of the transactions.