Snehal Upadhyay-
The High Court of Delhi directed RTI activist Saket Gokhale to take down his tweet against former Indian Assistant Secretary-General to the United Nations, Lakshmi Puri on grounds of being defamatory within 24 hours.
The RTI activist called the former Indian Assistant Secretary-General to the United Nations, Lakshmi Puri a “black money hoarder” concerning a disproportionate assets allegation.
A single bench of Justice C Hari Shankar issued notice to Gokhale in the main suit
Further, the Court has also issued summons against him and has restricted him to make any other such defamatory comments against Puri and has directed him to file a written submission and denial affidavits.
The Senior Advocate-Mr. Maninder Singh (Former ASG) who was the petitioner’s counsel contended that the tweets not only raised queries against Puri but also on her husband’s source of income. She was also referred to as a “thief” and a “black money hoarder”.
The petition claimed Puri’s rights which were infringed by Gokhale’s defamatory statement, referring to the Right to Reputation as granted under Article 21( Right to life and Personal liberties) of the Indian Constitution.
The Court said, “While it was not in the least questioning Gokhale or any citizen’s right to public comment on a public servant or retired public servant’s sources of income, the law did not permit any person aggrieved by a retired public servants or officer’s declaration of assets to publish allegations without seeking any clarification from the person or approaching the authorities”.
Further, the Court directed Gokhale to take down his tweet within 24 hours or else if he so fails, then Twitter Inc. has been directed to delete his tweets on the given URLs.
Read more: Delhi HC reserves order in Defamation Suit by Lakshmi Puri against Saket Gokhale