Saket Gokhale should’ve done due diligence before ‘defamatory’ tweets on Lakshmi Puri, HC says

Activist Saket Gokhale had raised questions on the assets of former diplomat Lakshmi Puri and her husband Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in a series of tweets last month.

(L-R) Activist Saket Gokhale and former diplomat Lakshmi Puri | Twitter and UN

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Tuesday directed activist Saket Gokhale to delete allegedly defamatory tweets against former Indian diplomat Lakshmi Puri and asserted that Gokhale should have conducted due diligence or sought clarifications before posting the tweets.

Last month, in a series of tweets, Gokhale had raised questions about an apartment that Puri had purchased in Switzerland. He sought an inquiry by the Enforcement Directorate into the assets of the former diplomat and her husband, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, and also tagged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the tweets.

However, Justice C. Hari Shankar has now asked him to delete the tweets and also restrained the activist from posting “defamatory or scandalous or factually incorrect tweets” against her or her husband.

The directions were issued on an application filed by Puri seeking interim relief and if Gokhale fails to take down the 16 tweets within 24 hours of the order, the court asked Twitter to take down the tweets.

The HC also rejected Gokhale’s contention that before posting messages on a social media platform against someone, no due diligence or preliminary enquiry into the facts is necessary.

“Such a submission, if accepted, would place the reputation of every citizen in the country in serious jeopardy, and open to ransom at the hands of every social media vigilante, some of whose intentions may be less than honourable,” the court observed.

It asserted that Gokhale should have first made enquiries with the official authorities like the Ministry of Finance or the Election Commission, “before choosing to belabour the reputation of the plaintiff through his Twitter account”.

However, these observations were just prima facie and preliminary in nature, since the court was just ruling on a stay application filed by Puri for interim relief. The suit is yet to be tried and Gokhale also has an option to file an application seeking modification or reversal of this order.

‘Reputations crumble in an instant’

The 22-page HC order asserted that “criticism always makes for better press than praise, and the more vitriolic the criticism, the better”, adding that “in the age of social media, desecration of the reputation of a public figure has become child’s play”.

It added that “reputations, nourished and nurtured over years of selfless service and toil, may crumble in an instant; one thoughtless barb is sufficient”.

In the suit, Puri had filed several documents on her source of finances for purchase of the apartment.

Referring to these, the court said that it is “unable to find, prima facie, even a scintilla of impropriety, or lack of transparency, either in the purchase of the apartment, or in the disclosures made to the statutory authorities in that regard, either by the plaintiff (Puri) or by her husband”.

On the basis of the information provided to the court, it also found Gokhale’s tweets to be erroneous on several counts.

The court noted that since there were a “number of false representations contained in the tweets” in view of the “continued damage” to Puri’s reputation, it should pass an immediate order without waiting for a formal response from Gokhale.

‘Is this your idea of a legal notice?’

Puri had first served a legal notice to Gokhale on 23 June, alleging that the tweets involved “deliberate twisting of facts in order to cause reputational damage and irrevocable harm”.

He was asked to apologise, remove the tweets and give an undertaking that he will not resort to such “slanderous behaviour ever in the future”.

In response, Gokhale tweeted asking, “Is this your idea of a “legal notice”? It’s embarrassing.”

When Gokhale did not take down the tweets, Puri filed the suit in the HC on 5 July, seeking a mandatory injunction against Gokhale to immediately take down the tweets, and a direction that he would not publish any further tweets containing allegations against her or her family members.

She has also sought an apology from him, along with Rs 5 crore in damages, to be deposited in the PM Cares fund.