New Delhi: The Delhi high court admonished RTI activist Saket Gokhale for allegedly posting defamatory tweets against Lakshmi Puri, a former Indian diplomat and the wife of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Indian Express has reported.The court reserved its verdict for Tuesday, July 13, in a suit filed by Lakshmi Puri for the deletion of tweets in question and seeking Rs 5 crore in damages against Gokhale. However, Gokhale refused to take down the tweets.The case pertains to the tweets posted by the RTI activist last month (on June 13 and 26) which raised questions over a property purchased by Lakshmi Puri in Switzerland and expressed doubts over the assets of the Puri couple. According to Gokhale, Lakshmi Puri’s assets surpass what was declared by her husband, Hardeep Singh Puri, in his election affidavit. Tagging finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman, he pressed for an Enforcement Directorate inquiry against the couple.“How can you be vilifying people like this. Knock off these things from the website,” Justice C. Hari Shanker was quoted as saying by the Indian Express. “If you have a problem with the public functionaries, you must go to them first.”In her suit, Lakshmi Puri, who had served as a former assistant secretary-general in the United States, alleged that tweets are “maliciously motivated and designed accordingly, laced with canards and entail deliberate twisting of facts”.“I have made out a prima facie case and the balance of convenience is in my favour. There is conclusive evidence of defamation and harassment having taken place. People who have served the country with utmost integrity are being accused by people who are nothing. These materials which destroy the honour and integrity of a person shall not be allowed to stay,” Puri said in her suit, according to PTI.Taking a jibe at Gokhale and describing him as a “thekedar of taking replies from public offices”, Puri’s lawyer Maninder Singh asserted that Gokhale cannot question his client, and requested the court to make the case an example. He also alleged that Gokhale was doing so to increase his followers on Twitter to receive crowdfunding.In response, Gokhale’s counsel Sarim Naved reminded the court that the Supreme Court had held that the assets of a candidate contesting elections and their spouse can be commented upon publically, and their comments were purely based on the affidavit submitted by Hardeep Puri. Naved further alleged that Lakshmi Puri’s assets surpass her declared income.Unimpressed, Justice Shankar in response said that Gokhale cannot put out tweets “without verifying” facts and first reaching out to the government authority concerned. “Before you throw mud at someone, you have to do an entire due diligence exercise, observed the court,” Justice Shankar told Gokhale.When specifically asked if Gokhale was ready to take down his tweets, his counsel responded in negative.Continuing further, the judge said, “Anyone can write anything vilificatory against anyone on the internet and there is no way the court can interfere with it at all irrespective of whether it completely damages the reputation of the person concerned. This is your understanding of the law.”Gokhale’s counsel when responded by saying that his client is a citizen, the judge retorted saying that being a citizen does not mean that he can damage the reputation of anyone. Justice Shankar said that “reputation” has been accorded fundamental right status under Article 21 of the constitution.Lakshmi Puri submitted to the court that the debt incurred in purchasing the property (apartment) concerned was still being serviced and that she had duly informed her employer regarding the same at the relevant time. According to her, when she had decided to purchase the apartment in 2005, it was priced at 16,00,000 Swiss Franc and a sum of 6,00,000 CHF had become available to her from her daughter, a senior vice president with an international investment bank, in two tranches. The remainder of the amount was borrowed from a bank and is still being serviced, her submission to court stated.(With PTI inputs)
