The Delhi High Court has noted that Union Minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani and her daughter are neither owners of the restaurant in Goa nor have they ever applied for the licence for food and beverages at the eatery. The court also said that Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera, Netta D’Souza along with others conspired to “launch a tirade of false scathing and belligerent personal attacks” against the mother-daughter duo.
The high court said the statement made by three Congress leaders are in the nature of slander and seem to be bogus with malicious intent,” to intentionally subject Irani to a “great public ridicule and “to injure the moral character and public image” of the BJP leader and her daughter, news agency PTI reported.
The remarks were made by the high court while perusing the documents placed before it in a civil defamation suit filed by Irani against the three Congress leaders. The high court’s order, in which it had on July 29 issued summons to three Congress leaders on the civil defamation suit, was uploaded on the court’s website On Monday.
The high court has also asked them to take down tweets and other social media posts on allegations levelled against the union minister and her daughter. The court said in case the defendants fail to comply with its directions to remove tweets, retweets, posts, videos, and photos from social media concerning the allegations made against Irani, and her daughter within 24 hours, social media platforms Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube shall take down the material, according to PTI.
The matter has now been listed for further hearing before the court and registrar on November 15 and August 18, respectively.
Irani’s action came after the Congress leaders alleged that her daughter Zoish Irani ran a bar illegally in Goa and also targeted the minister over this, demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sack her from his Cabinet.
“After seeing the documents placed on record and the excerpts of the press conference, I am of the prima facie view that slanderous and libelous allegations have been made against the plaintiff without verifying actual facts. Great injury has been caused to the reputation of the plaintiff and her family in view of the various tweets and re-tweets which have been followed the press conference carried out by the defendants,” the judge said.
The high court said there is an imperative need to protect the reputation of an individual, least to say, that of the plaintiff who is a respected member of the society and esteemed member of the Union Ministry.
The judge further said, “I deem it expedient to pass an ad-interim injunction directing defendants 1-3 (Congress leaders) to delete and remove the allegations, video of impugned press conference dated July 23, 2022, and the contents linked to the same , published against the plaintiff from all the social media platforms, namely, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.”
(With PTI inputs)
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