TMC MP Saket Gokhale agrees to apologise in Lakshmi Puri defamation case

The Delhi High Court has put the payment of ₹50 lakh in damages that Gokhale has to pay on hold for now

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saket Gokhale on Friday told the Delhi High Court that he would publish an apology in the defamation case against him for making unfounded statements against ex-diplomat Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri.

 

Gokhale made the submission only after the court refused to accept his plea attaching conditions to the apology.

 

The bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Renu Bhatnagar was hearing the petition filed by Gokhale challenging last year's order in which he was restrained from publishing any more content on social media or electronic platforms against Puri, and which directed him to apologise to her and pay ₹50 lakh in damages.

 

During the brief hearing, the bench said there would not be any stay on publishing an apology but agreed to stay the ₹50 lakh damages payment mentioned in the earlier order.

 

"If it is only damages, we will stay it for the present. Apology can't be (stayed)," the bench said.

 

The bench dismissed senior advocate Amit Sibal’s plea to allow the publication of an apology contingent on a stay order or subject to future directions from the court in the appeal. "Then that's no apology. No, no question," the bench remarked, rejecting the suggestion that Gokhale could issue an apology while indicating that the matter was still under appeal.

 

In addition to challenging last year's order, Gokhale also contested the May 9 ruling in Puri’s contempt petition. That earlier order had directed Gokhale to issue an apology both on his X account — where he had posted the contentious tweets — and in a leading national newspaper within two weeks, a deadline that passed on May 23.

 

Senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing Puri, informed the division bench about Gokhale's conduct of not adhering to the timelines fixed by single judges to issue a public apology.

 

During the hearing, Sibal along with advocate Naman Joshi, claimed that in his tweets, Gokhale had only made a fair comment and that Puri was not named in the posts.

 

"I asked questions. I did not accuse anyone of corruption," the counsel said, adding that the decree was passed against Gokhale without Puri leading any evidence. 

 

When the court declined to stay the order requiring an apology, Sibal requested that at least the damages portion be suspended, offering that Gokhale would go ahead and issue the apology. In response, Singh reiterated he would temporarily hold off on seeking damages through the execution petition.

 

Puri had originally approached the High Court in 2021, alleging that Gokhale had damaged her reputation by making baseless and defamatory claims about her finances, specifically related to an apartment in Geneva.

 

The July 1, 2024, verdict also reaffirmed the restriction on Gokhale from posting any new material relating to his allegations against Puri and directed him to apologise to her and pay ₹50 lakh in damages. Puri filed a contempt petition against Gokhale after he failed to comply with the 2024 judgment.

 

Gokhale subsequently sought a recall of that judgment, but the HC, on May 2, dismissed his application, also refusing to excuse a delay of over 180 days in filing the plea.

 

On April 24, the court ordered attaching a portion of the salary being received by Gokhale as a member of Parliament of Rajya Sabha.

 

(With PTI inputs)