Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Saket Gokhale has been in dispute with Lakshmi Puri, wife of Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet. In 2021, Saket Gokhale tweeted about the real estate property Lakshmi Puri bought in Switzerland suggesting corruption and was sued for defamation.
In 2021, in an interim order, the court restrained Saket Gokhale from posting “scandalous” tweets against Lakshmi Puri and her husband, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. Justice C Hari Shankar also ordered that all such tweets be immediately taken down.
“The defendant [Gokhale] is directed to immediately delete from his Twitter account all tweets against the plaintiff [Puri] which the present plaint makes reference, as well as all connected tweets, which form part of the trail of tweets by the defendant against the plaintiff.”
In 2024, the Delhi High Court delivered judgement finding he was guilty of defaming Lakshmi Puri. The court ordered Gokhale to put the apology in Times of India and on his Twitter handle, which had to be pinned to stay for 6 months.
The court had also ordered him to pay Rs. 50 lakh damages to Lakshmi Puri.
It has been reported that Saket Gokhale did nothing to comply with the orders – neither tendered an apology as ordered nor paid the money.
On May 24, appearing for Lakshmi Puri, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh submitted that on May 09, a coordinate bench had directed Gokhale to publish the apology within two weeks, i.e. by 23 May.
It seems the court had had enough of it.
“This Court finds that the stand of the judgment debtor (Gokhale) in not complying with the timelines set out in the original judgment passed in July 1024 and the extended timeline as per order of May 09, it almost appears to the Court that the judgment debtor is mocking at the court and the court process,” the Court said.
The court also threatened jail time if compliance was not forthcoming.
“He is not apologizing to you. Second, he is breaching the [direction]. According to me he has to go to jail. It is not the question of appointing a LC… the moment LC is appointed to do it, that is not compliance. It has to be from him,” the court said.
For damages ordered against Saket Gokhale, the Court also attached Saket Gokhale’s monthly salary as MP. That means, once compliance starts to take place, his salary of Rs 1.9 Lakhs (inclusive of daily allowance) will, (or major chunk of it as ordered by the court) start to be paid directly to Mrs Puri.