TMC's Saket Gokhale to pay Rs 50 lakh damages for defaming minister's wife

The Delhi high court directed Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale on Monday to apologise and pay Rs 50 lakh damages to former diplomat Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri, the wife of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, for his defamatory tweets against her over the purchase of a property in Switzerland.

Hearing the defamation lawsuit filed by the former assistant secretary general of the United Nations, Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani also restrained the TMC member of Parliament from publishing any more content on any social media or electronic platform concerning his imputation.

The "roving allegations" insinuating financial impropriety, the judge observed, were "actually targeting" Bharatiya Janata Party leader Hardeep Singh Puri and it was "extremely irresponsible" of Gokhale to have published the "derogatory content" without due verification.

The court stated that the documents shown by the former diplomat "clearly and cogently explained the source of funds" used by her to purchase the apartment, which included a loan from a banking institution and funds from her daughter, and while the damage caused to her reputation by the offending tweets cannot be effaced completely, an unconditional apology is the very least that is required.

"The offending tweets are per se defamatory; that the plaintiff has suffered undeserved legal injury to her reputation which warrants redressal," it ruled.

Puri approached the high court in 2021, alleging that Gokhale tarnished her good name and reputation by making reckless and false allegations about her financial affairs in the context of an apartment that she owned in Geneva.

Justice Bhambhani said allegations of financial impropriety dent the very foundations of a person's reputation and in the present case, the loss of esteem suffered by the plaintiff would have resulted "inevitably in loss of social standing, accompanied by psychological distress, aggravated by the pain of false accusation".

"The very first thing that defendant No.1 (Gokhale) is directed to do is to publish an apology in the following terms on his own Twitter (now X), handle from which he had put out the offending tweets, as also prominently in (a newspaper)," the court said.

"It is this court's view that no amount of monetary award can truly compensate for damage to reputation. However, upon a balance of all considerations, defendant No.1 is directed to pay to the plaintiff damages in the sum of Rs 50 lakh within eight weeks," it ordered.

The court said the apology shall be retained on Gokhale's 'X' handle for six months from the date it is published.

Noting that the tweets evoked derogatory and offensive responses in the "comments section", the court observed that the messages on social media generate a "social media chain reaction", which is "no less dangerous in today's milieu than a nuclear reaction gone out of control".

"Defendant No.1 claims to be a popular RTI activist and is now also a member of a political party. The offending tweets have therefore no doubt been circulated in various political, official and non-official circles. Defendant No.1's conduct after the offending tweets were put out, and after he was cautioned of the falsity of their content, has been less than responsible or remorseful," it said.

"Instead defendant No.1 has chosen to persist in his stand. The indifference displayed by defendant No. 1 in the course of the present proceedings is self-evident," the court added.

In the 62-page judgment, the court observed that Gokhale initially entered an appearance through his counsel and filed his written statement but subsequently, chose "simply not to appear or be represented in the matter, as if he did not care about the outcome of the proceedings at all".

It asserted that being the spouse of a person in public office, Puri's financial affairs were open to public scrutiny but a distinction has to be drawn between such scrutiny and subjecting her to vilification by asking "tendentious questions laced with innuendo".

"This court is satisfied that what has been stated by defendant No.1 in the offending tweets is evidently incorrect, false and untrue," the court said.

"Defendant No.1 himself says that his verification of facts, as it were, was limited to perusing the disclosure affidavits filed by the plaintiff's husband," it added.

Represented by the law firm Karanjawala and Company, Puri had sought Rs 5 crore damages from Gokhale, to be deposited in the PM CARES Fund. She had also sought directions for the tweets to be taken down.