Smriti Irani defamation case: The Delhi High Court on Friday issued summons to Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Netta D'Souza on a civil defamation suit filed by Union minister Smriti Irani seeking damages of over Rs 2 crore for allegedly making baseless allegations against her and her daughter.
Justice Mini Pushkarna directed the three Congress leaders to remove tweets, retweets, posts, videos and photos from social media in relation to the allegations made against Irani, who is holding the portfolio of Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Minority Affairs, and her daughter.
The court said in case the defendants fail to comply with its directions within 24 hours, social media platforms Twitter, Facebook and YouTube shall take down the material.
Responding to the court summons, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that they will put facts before the court and added, 'We will challenge and disprove the spin being put out by Ms. Irani.'
Irani's action came after the Congress leaders alleged that her 18-year-old 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.
Defending her daughter's position, Union Minister Smriti Irani said she will see Congress in court over the way two Congress spokesperson attacked and damaged her daughter's character in a press conference, alleging that she runs illegal bars. Irani said: "My daughter is a student and she does not run any bar in Goa."
The leader added that the allegations made by Congress are baseless. Attacking the Congress, Irani said: "The fault of my girl is her mother did a press conference on the loot of Rs 5000 crore by Rahul and Sonia Gandhi.
(With PTI inputs)
