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The Delhi High Court today directed Activist Saket Gokhale to delete all defamatory tweets against United Nations Assistant Secretary General Lakshmi Puri within 24 hours.

The order was pronounced by a single bench of Justice C Harishankar who has directed Gokahle to implead Twitter as a party for taking down the tweets within 24hrs of passing of the order.

The Court has also restrained Gokhale from further tweeting anything against Puri.

 The single judge bench of Justice C Harishankar had reserved its order for July 13. 

The Court had earlier slammed Gokhale for posting vilifying tweets against Puri & had asked him to “knock them off”.

Puri’s Counsel, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh had argued that Gokhale was an uncontrollable and that he had posted the tweets with mala fide intentions.

Gokhale’s counsel Advocate Sarim Naved had argued that his client had the right as a citizen according to Supreme Court judgment in Lok Prahari to probe into wealth of public functionaries.

The Court however dissatisfied with Naved’s arguments said that Gokhale must go to the Election Commission for his satisfaction.

The court further said “One must do a due diligence exercise before he throws mud at someone”.

The suit has been filed by Karanjawala & Co., seeking a mandatory injunction, damages and costs along with interim reliefs on behalf of Puri.

Puri had alleged that in a series of tweets dated June 13, 2021 and June 23, 2021, Gokhale had made false and scurrilous allegation against Puri and her husband of having purchased a "house" in Geneva, Switzerland in the year 2006 using black money.

Case Title :LAKSHMI MURDESHWAR PURI vs SAKET GOKHALE