The Delhi high court on Thursday ordered the attachment of a portion of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saket Gokhale’s salary after he failed to comply with the court’s direction to pay ₹50 lakh in damages to Union minister Hardeep Puri’s wife Lakshmi Puri in a defamation case.
The court passed the order in connection with the suit filed by Lakshmi Puri, a former diplomat who served as India’s assistant secretary-general to the United Nations, after taking offence to a series of posts Gokhale put out against her on X in 2021.
A bench of justice Manmeet PS Arora opined that the parliamentarian had failed to give a “reasonable explanation” for non-compliance.
“Respondent (Gokhale) has not given any reasonable explanation for depositing the amount. Accordingly, the issue warrants attachment as per Section 60 of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908, with respect to the salary which is stated to be ₹1,90,000 per month as per the reply of the judgement debtor,” the HC said.
Section 60(1)(i) of the Code states that the salary of a judgement-debtor can be attached to the extent of the first one thousand rupees and two thirds of the remainder. This amount would approximately come to ₹1,27,000 in the present case.
“The salary shall remain attached until the sum of ₹50,00,000 is deposited with this court,” the order stated. The matter has been posted for a hearing on May 28.
Since the court has ordered the attachment, Puri will now initiate the process for compliance of the order. Then, she will need to go to the court’s registry with Gokhale’s account details and from where the salary will be withdrawn. Subsequently, the registry will take care of the further process.
Gokhale, in his posts, raised questions on an apartment owned by her and had also sought an inquiry by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the assets involving the couple.
On July 1 last year, the court had asked Gokhale to publish an apology and pay damages to her on finding that the social media posts diminished and harmed Puri’s position which she had earned for herself in society. Puri moved a contempt petition after Gokhale did not comply with the order.
The judge issued the direction after Puri’s counsel, senior advocate Maninder Singh, submitted that the court had not stayed the July 1 order and Gokhale’s counsel admitted that his client was not inclined to publish the apology.
The TMC MP, through his counsel, further submitted that publishing the apology would render his application seeking recall as “infructuous”.
To be sure, Gokhale has sought recall of the July 1 order on which the judgment has been reserved.
The matter arose from a petition filed by Puri seeking execution of the July 1 order, asserting that the lawmaker deliberately chose to not comply, despite being aware of the same. In December, the court had directed Gokhale to file an affidavit disclosing his assets, properties and bank account within four weeks.
A coordinate bench of the high court on April 16 had reserved verdict in Gokhale’s petition seeking recall of July 1 order. Puri had objected to it, claiming Gokhale willfully chose to not comply with the directive. Gokhale expressed his willingness to settle issues with Puri, but the latter’s counsel refused the settlement offer, contending that the Rajya Sabha member had defamed her without any basis.
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