Delhi High Court Warns TMC's Saket Gokhale with Civil Imprisonment over Defamation Case

The Delhi High Court has served a notice to Trinamool Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Saket Gokhale, demanding an explanation for not apologizing to former diplomat Lakshmi Puri over defamatory social media content. Court has questioned if Gokhale should face civil imprisonment for his non-compliance.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora was addressing an execution petition by Puri, who seeks enforcement of a July 2024 final judgment. The court had ordered Gokhale to pay Rs 50 lakh in damages within eight weeks and issue a public apology both in a publication and his former Twitter account within four weeks. On April 24, 2025, the court further ordered the attachment of Gokhale's salary until the full amount was paid.

Representing Lakshmi Puri, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh pointed to a May 2025 contempt petition where a bench directed Gokhale to comply with the apology within two weeks. This directive was neither disclosed to the current court nor appealed against, and crucially, it remains unfulfilled. Despite additional compliance time, Gokhale has failed to meet the directive, prompting the court to issue a show-cause notice, requiring a reply within a week.

(With inputs from agencies.)