Delhi High Court Directs Activist to Delete Defamatory Tweets against former diplomat

Delhi High Court Directs Activist to Delete Defamatory Tweets against former diplomat

Tweets against were scandalous and factually incorrect, meant merely to defame Lakshmi Puri and her husband, federal minister Hardeep Singh Puri

The Delhi High Court has directed Defendant to take down the inflammatory tweets levelling false allegations against Plaintiff.

The matter titled Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri v Saket Gokhale was heard by a single-judge Court of Justice C. Hari Shankar.

The facts leading up to the application originated through a series of tweets made by Saket Gokhale – Defendant against Ms Lakshmi M. Puri – Plaintiff. Plaintiff and her husband are distinguished public servants who purchased a Swiss Apartment at Swiss Francs (CHF) 1.6 million. The source of funding was disclosed as CHF 1 million being sourced through bank loans against mortgage of the property and the remaining CHF 600,000 having been provided by the Plaintiff's daughter.

The judge, prima facie was satisfied that there has been complete disclosure regarding the purchase of the Swiss Apartment, its value, as well as the loans taken.

A series of tweets of the Defendant from 13 June 2021 was brought to the notice of the Court conveying a misleading impression that the Swiss Apartment was bought out of the pay of the Plaintiff, concealing the availment of bank loan by the Plaintiff, as well as the money provided by her daughter, for the said purpose. Several erroneous tweets were made by Defendant, all predicated on the improbability of a 'serving IFS officer' having the requisite money to purchase the Swiss Apartment.

Plaintiff contended that the entire game plan of Defendant from the beginning was to link the Plaintiff and her husband, with 'black money' stashed in Switzerland and that this prima facie constituted, defamation of the Plaintiff. In these circumstances, the Plaintiff filed the present suit before the Delhi High Court, seeking a mandatory injunction against the Defendant, to immediately take down/delete the Tweets directed against the Plaintiff, with a further restraint, against the Defendant, from publishing any further Tweets levelling false allegations against the Plaintiff or her family members. Plaintiff also sought an apology from Defendant, along with the damages.

Defendant, on the other hand, submitted that he was merely provoking public debate over a matter with which, as an activist, he was concerned since the assets of every candidate, standing for elections, are a matter of public concern and that he acted purely by public interest, with no personal axe to grind. Defendant further declined to take down the Tweets directed against Plaintiff when enquired by this Court before pronouncing the order.

The Court while disposing of this application, made observations about the benefits and misuses of social media by stating that:

"In the age of social media, desecration of the reputation of a public figure has become child's play."

The defence of Defendant that law does not require a vigilante to post, on social media platforms, against public figures was not accepted by this Court by stating it was incumbent on Defendant to carry out a preliminary due diligence exercise.

The Court concluded the following:

"Prima facie, the barrage of tweets directed by the defendant against the plaintiff, with a majority of them having been posted on a single day – 23 June 2021 – constrains this Court to observe that the exercise undertaken by the defendant appears to have been actuated by a clear desire to target the plaintiff and her husband, for reasons which seem, at the very least, to be recondite."

The Court observed that this case required peremptory orders since Defendant despite being aware of the misrepresentation of the facts of the case, coupled with the continued damage to Plaintiff's reputation made the number of false representations contained in the tweets of Defendant against the Plaintiff. Therefore, Defendant was directed by the Court to immediately delete, from his Twitter account, all Tweets against Plaintiff and to refrain from posting any defamatory or scandalous or factually incorrect Tweet, on his Twitter account against Plaintiff and her husband.

Both the Plaintiff – Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri and her husband Hardeep Singh Puri served as senior officers in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS). Plaintiff's husband Hardeep Singh Puri is serving as a federal minister of India since 2017.