“The very first thing that defendant No.1 (Gokhale) is directed to do is to publish an apology in the following terms on his own Twitter (now X), handle from which he had put out the offending tweets, as also prominently in (a newspaper),” the court said.”It is this court’s view that no amount of monetary award can truly compensate for damage to reputation. However, upon a balance of all considerations, defendant No.1 is directed to pay to the plaintiff damages in the sum of Rs 50 lakh within eight weeks,” it ordered.The court said the apology shall be retained on Gokhale’s ‘X’ handle for six months from the date it is published.Represented by the law firm Karanjawala and Company, Puri had sought Rs 5 crore damages from Gokhale for his libellous statements against her and her family.In the 62-page judgment, the court observed that Gokhale initially entered an appearance through his counsel and filed his written statement but subsequently, chose “simply not to appear or be represented in the matter, as if he did not care about the outcome of the proceedings at all”.In July 2021, the high court passed an interim order, restraining Gokhale from posting any defamatory or scandalous tweets against Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri or her husband Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri.
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