The Delhi High Court has ordered the attachment of the salary of Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Saket Gokhale in connection with a defamation case filed by Lakshmi Puri, a former Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations.
"Issue warrant of attachment as per Section 60(i) of the CPC with respect to the respondent’s salary,"
— Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, Delhi High Court
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This decision came after Gokhale failed to comply with a previous court order requiring him to deposit ₹50 lakh as damages. The amount was directed to be paid as part of a defamation decree passed earlier in favour of Lakshmi Puri.
Back in July 2021, a coordinate bench of the same court had ruled in Puri’s favour during an interim relief hearing. Gokhale was directed to:
- Apologize publicly through a statement published in the Times of India.
- Post an apology on his Twitter handle, to remain pinned for six months.
- Remove the tweets in question within 24 hours.
- Refrain from making further defamatory posts about Puri.
Despite these directions, the High Court observed that Gokhale had neither deposited the damages nor offered any valid reason for the delay.
“Roving allegations have been made by the respondent against the plaintiff and her husband,”
— Delhi High Court quoting Othello by William Shakespeare in the previous ruling
Lakshmi Puri had filed the defamation suit after Gokhale posted tweets suggesting irregularities in a property she had purchased in Switzerland. The tweets also implied financial wrongdoing involving her husband, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, and even tagged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, calling for an ED investigation.
Puri’s legal team argued that the tweets were false, defamatory, and maliciously motivated. According to her, the posts were designed to mislead the public by twisting facts.
As Gokhale failed to follow the court's earlier directions, the current order mandates that his salary will remain under attachment until the full ₹50 lakh is deposited with the court.
“The court is satisfied that there has been non-compliance with the earlier decree. Hence, the execution will proceed with salary attachment,”
— Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora
This development marks a significant enforcement of defamation penalties through salary attachment, underlining the judiciary’s firm stance on compliance with court-ordered damages.
Title: LAKSHMI MURDESHWAR PURI v. SAKET GOKHALE
