MUMBAI: The Delhi High Court has asked Republic TV and the kin of late Sunanda Pushkar not to indulge in "name calling" in connection with her death case but said there could be a possibility of some posturing from both sides.

The court was hearing the Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's plea seeking to restrain journalist-editor Arnab Goswami and his TV channel from alleged misreporting on his wife's death, PTI reported. Pushkar was found dead in a south Delhi five-star hotel suite on the night of 17 January, 2014, in mysterious circumstances.

Justice Manmohan made the above observation after lawyers accused each other of not being careful while tweeting about the case as well as about each other.

The court has now told Tharoor's lawyers to file their response to the affidavit filed by Goswami and the channel and listed the case for hearing on 21 September. Tharoor had filed Rs 20 million defamation suit against Goswami and his channel.

While the media house was now careful in how it reported about the case, senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for Tharoor, said some Republic TV reporters were not taking the same care while tweeting. Appearing for Republic TV, advocate Malvika Trivedi contended that Tharoor had also made endless tweets against it which, she said, were offensive.

In response, Khurshid said that his client's remarks about the media house were harsh and funny, but not defamatory and assured the court that such statements would not be made again. Khurshid said he does not want to gag the media. Investigation was their right, he said, but, he said, they had already held him guilty.