‘Withdraw Your Apology Affidavit’: Delhi HC to TMC MP Saket Gokhale in Lakshmi Puri Defamation Case

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, asked All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saket Gokhale to withdraw his apology affidavit and file a revised one in a defamation suit filed by former diplomat Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri over his public remarks concerning her ownership of an apartment in Geneva, Switzerland.

A Division Bench of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Renu Bhatnagar objected to the apology affidavit filed by Gokhale and asked him to submit a better affidavit within one week.

The High Court was hearing Gokhale’s appeal challenging a judgment that had directed him to pay Rs 50 lakhs in damages to Puri and issue a public apology in a national daily as well as on his social media account.

During the hearing today, Senior Advocate Amit Sibal, at the outset, told the high court that Gokhale had tendered an unconditional apology through his X handle, formerly Twitter.

Hearing this, Justice Navin Chawla stated, "Now it's only a question of damages and injunction."

In response, Sibal told the court that the injunction order restrains Gokhale from making any utterance related to the impugned statements, which, according to him, is overbroad. He alleged that “even though the nature of the statements was inquisitorial and not accusatory, and were based on information from an election affidavit, the direction restrains him from making any statements at all, not even laudatory ones.”

On the other hand, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for Puri, opposed the submissions made. He highlighted Gokhale’s conduct before the Single Judge during execution and contempt proceedings.

"The Hon’ble judge had adjourned the matter nine times to allow him to appear, finally heard the case and passed the decree on July 1, 2024. While the compensation demanded was Rs 5 crore, the Court awarded Rs 50 lakhs. However, the very next day, Gokhale posted a tweet that was egregious in nature, commenting on the judgment," Singh submitted.

After hearing both sides, Justice Navin Chawla pointed to paragraph 4 of Gokhale’s apology affidavit and remarked, “Mr. Sibal, we don’t like what’s been said. Just look at your affidavit, para 4.”

Accordingly, the Court asked Gokhale to withdraw the apology affidavit and file a better one within a week. It also clarified that pending appeals would be taken up only once a fresh affidavit is duly filed.

The matter will next be heard on July 22.

Background:

The matter arose from a defamation suit filed by Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri, a former diplomat and senior official of the United Nations, against Saket Gokhale. The suit pertained to a series of tweets made by Gokhale in which he questioned how Puri could have purchased a house worth 1.6 million Swiss Francs in Geneva in 2006.

In her plaint, Puri alleged that the statements were “maliciously motivated, laced with canards, and entailed deliberate twisting of facts in order to cause reputational damage and irrevocable harm”.

She further contended that Gokhale had manipulated financial data by selectively quoting from a 2018 affidavit filed by her husband, then a public servant, during his Rajya Sabha nomination process. According to her, this was done in a mala fide and defamatory manner.

On July 8, 2021, Justice C. Harishankar had directed Gokhale to take down the tweets in question. Despite indicating a willingness to amicably settle the matter during later proceedings, Gokhale’s proposal was declined by Puri’s counsel, who maintained that the defamatory statements were baseless and had caused unjustified harm to her reputation.

Appearance:

Mr. Gokhale was represented by Senior Advocate Amit Sibal.

Ms. Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri was represented by Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, along with Advocates Vishal Gehrana and Palak Sharma from Karanjawala & Co.

Case Title: Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri v Saket Gokhale