Goa bar row: HC summons Cong leaders on Irani's defamation suit, orders removal of slanderous tweets

The Delhi High Court on Friday issued summonses to Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Netta D'Souza on a civil defamation suit filed by BJP leader Smriti Irani, and asked them to take down tweets and other social media posts on allegations levelled against the union minister and her daughter.

Irani, the Minister for Women and Child Development, has sought damages of over Rs 2 crore from the Congress leaders for allegedly making baseless and false accusations against her and her 18-year-old daughter.

The high court said it was of the considered view that the statements made by the defendants (Congress leaders) are “slanderous and bogus” and added that, ''Plaintiff (Irani) has made out a prima facie case and balance of convenience lies in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendants''.

Justice Mini Pushkarna issued summonses to the three Congress leaders on the defamation suit and passed an interim injunction directing them to remove from social media the allegations made against Irani 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 in relation to the allegations made against Irani, and her daughter within 24 hours, social media platforms Twitter, Facebook and YouTube shall take down the material.

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 allegations were made against the plaintiff without verifying actual facts. Grave injury has been caused to the reputation of the plaintiff in view of the tweets and retweets carried out due to the press conference of the defendants,'' the judge said.

The judge further said, ''I deem it proper to pass an interim injunction directing defendants 1-3 (Congress leaders) to delete and remove the allegations made during the press conference from all social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.'' They are also directed by the court to remove the post, videos, tweets, retweets, morphed pictures of plaintiff and her daughter along with the allegations and stop their recirculation, the court said, noting that the plaintiff holds an esteemed position being a minister in the Government of India.

The court granted liberty to Irani to inform the social media platforms, in case they come across any other post or tweet or photo, besides those mentioned in the documents placed on record.

The matter has now been listed for further hearing before the court and registrar on November 15 and August 18, respectively.

During the hearing, Irani's counsel submitted that she is a respected citizen of the country and the three Congress leaders, with pre-planned conspiracy of defaming and maligning the reputation of the BJP leader, organised the press conference on July 23 and made allegations without any substance.

''When such allegations are levelled, not only an individual but the whole society suffers. It becomes worse when you use children to settle political scores. You comment on character. These are supposedly the responsible functionaries of a party and they are holding press conference for this purpose. Don't make statements against the plaintiff's daughter to settle your scores with her,'' senior advocate N K Kaul, representing Irani, contended.

Irani was also represented through senior advocates Pinky Anand and Rajiv Nayar who submitted that the BJP leader cannot be subjected to such unsubstantiated allegations which started with allegations of bar licence and waded into beef eating.

The counsel said it has become completely defamatory and Irani's honour and dignity are at stake.

The plea said that the suit was filed seeking “mandatory and permanent injunction against the defendants, to take down/ delete various false and defamatory allegations and similar posts/ tweets, morphed/ extrapolated pictures and publications of similar nature against the applicant and from publishing and disseminating any further defamatory posts/ tweets, pictures and publications and leveling false allegations…” It said the continuous telecast/ viewership of said allegations on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, has caused grave prejudice to the applicant and it is nothing less than a deliberate smear campaign based on personal and political vendetta. Irani approached the court after the Congress leaders failed to respond to the legal notice sent to them by her.

The Congress had on July 23 demanded Irani's sacking, alleging her daughter was running an illegal bar in Goa, but the minister had claimed the ''malicious'' charge was made at the behest of the Gandhi family due to her vocal stand in the National Herald-linked money laundering case, and vowed to fight back.