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SMRITI, DAUGHTER NOT OWNERS OF RESTAURANT, SAYS DELHI HC

The Delhi High Court has noted that neither Smriti Irani,  union minister and prominent member of the BJP, nor her daughter are the proprietors of the restaurant in Goa, nor have they ever sought for the company’s food and beverage license. The court also said that Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera, Netta D’Souza along […]

Smriti Irani
Smriti Irani

The Delhi High Court has noted that neither Smriti Irani,  union minister and prominent member of the BJP, nor her daughter are the proprietors of the restaurant in Goa, nor have they ever sought for the company’s food and beverage license. 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 ruled that the statements made by the three Congress leaders “are in the nature of slander and seem to be bogus with malicious intent” to “injure the moral character and public image” of the BJP leader and her daughter, as well as to intentionally subject Irani to “great public ridicule.”

The high court made the comments as it read over the files presented to it in a civil defamation case brought by Irani against the three Congress members. The order from the high court, which had summoned three Congress leaders on July 29 over the civil defamation claim, was posted on the court’s website on Monday.

A request to remove tweets and other social media posts on accusations made against the union minister and her daughter was also made by the high court. The court ruled that Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube would take down the content if the defendants disobeyed its orders to delete tweets, retweets, posts, videos, and images from social media relating to the accusations made against Irani and her daughter within 24 hours.

The case will now be heard again in court and before the registrar on November 15 and August 18, respectively. Irani took action after Congress lawmakers demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi remove her from his Cabinet on the grounds that her daughter Zoish Irani was running an illegal bar in Goa.

“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.”

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