"Puri Couple been more than candid in disclosing wealth, funds to Court amid tirade of tweets launched by Saket Gokhale": Justice C Harishankar of Delhi High Court

Referring to Saket Gokhale’s scandalous tweets against Ms. Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri, a distinguished ex-public servant, a Single Bench of Delhi High Court comprising Justice C. Hari Shankar made some significant observations on Tuesday.

The court primarily noted that “in the age of social media, desecration of the reputation of a public figure has become child’s play.”

In its judgement in the case, the court highlighted at multiple points as to how social media platforms are being misused by people having mala fide intentions such as in the present case.

Some major upshots from the said judgment are listed below-

1. Observing that Social media, for all its unquestionable and undeniable benefits, as well as its indispensability in modern times, comes with its own sordid sequelae, the court held that Mr. Gokhale abused his access to social media and intentionally chose to damage the reputation of Ms. Puri and her family.
   
2. Noting the vast reach of the social media platforms and how someone’s reputation can be turned into mud instantly, the court Highlighted that till the date of filing of the suit, the tweets posted by the Mr. Gokhale had been “liked” by more than 26,270 users and “re-tweeted” by more than 8,280 users. The court also mentioned that
   40 pages of responding tweets which are in very poor taste contain abuses, allegations and opprobrious epithets against the plaintiff as well as her husband.
   
3. The court upheld the legality of the transactions made by Ms. Puri for her Swiss Apartment in question, the court said,

“In any event, given the exhaustive disclosures contained in the affidavits filed by the plaintiff’s husband, as well as by the plaintiff herself in her Income Tax returns, it can hardly be said, prima facie, that the plaintiff, or her husband, were less than candid in declaring not only the purchase of the Swiss Apartment, but its value as well as the source from which funds were obtained for the said purpose, so as to justify the tirade launched against them by the defendant, by his unending series of tweets.”

4. The court also rejected contentions of Mr. Naved, counsel of Mr. Gokhale, that before posting messages on a social media platform, made accessible to all members of the public, against any person, no due diligence, by way of conducting, at the very least, a preliminary enquiry into the facts, is necessary. The court observed that ‘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.’
5. The Court held Mr. Gokhale ignorant of his duty to enquire about the truthfulness of his allegations against Ms. Puri and her family, the court said,

“I am unable to accept this submission. To my mind, before posting tweets such as those which were posted by the defendant against the plaintiff, it was incumbent on the defendant to carry out a preliminary due diligence exercise. Ideally, in the first instance, clarifications ought to have been sought from the person against whom the messages were intended to be posted. If, in a given case, such an exercise was felt to be counter-productive, enquiries and clarifications have, nonetheless, to be sought from the available official sources.”

6. In her application before the court Ms. Puri sought three interim reliefs:

1. Direction to Mr. Gokhale to delete the current defamatory tweets, or to Twitter Inc. to delete them lest Mr. Gokhale fails to do so.
2. Instructions to Mr. Gokhale to refrain from posting such scandalous tweets against Ms. Puri and her family in future.
3. An apology from Mr. Gokhale, along with damages to the tune of ₹ 5 crores, to be deposited in the PM CARES fund.

Although the Court granted first two reliefs, it restricted itself form commenting over the third one.

Also Read: [Lakshmi Puri Vs. Saket Gokhale] “Take down tweets within 24 Hours”: Delhi High Court
Also Read: [Court in Pictures] The Lakshmi M. Puri & Saket Gokhale stand-off in Delhi High Court