New Delhi. The Delhi High Court objected to the affidavit filed by Saket Gokhale, the Rajya Sabha MP of the Trinamool Congress in the defamation case filed by former diplomat Lakshmi Puri and asked them to file a new affidavit again. Saket Gokhale has appealed against the order of a single judge to give compensation of Rs 50 lakh to Lakshmi Puri. Saket Gokhale was earlier directed by the court to apologize for a tweet against Laxmi Puri and apologize through the Times of India newspaper and give them compensation for defamation. Gokhale, however, recently publicly apologized to Laxmi Puri.
A bench of High Court Justice Naveen Chawla and Justice Renu Bhatnagar said that the affidavit given by the TMC MP repeated some oral comments of the court. Expressing objection to this, the court said, “First, you should withdraw the affidavit and file a second affidavit.” The court has fixed July 22 for the next hearing of the case. Saket Gokhale’s lawyer senior advocate Amit Sibal agreed that oral comments should not have been included in the affidavit. Let us tell you that former diplomat Lakshmi Puri is the wife of Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.
TMC MP Saket Gokhale had demanded an inquiry into the case by Laxmi Puri, alleging that the case was purchased in Switzerland. At the same time, Lakshmi Puri claimed that Gokhale made allegations based on malicious and wrong information and due to this she had filed a defamation case. Saket Gokhale had said in his apology that I apologize unconditionally for my tweets against Lakshmi Puri on 13 June and 23 June 2021. In these tweets, I had made misleading allegations against Laxmi Puri about the purchase of her property abroad, I am very sorry about this.