The Allahabad High Court has rejected the plea of international shooter Vartika Singh, who challenged a ruling by an MP/MLA court dismissing her defamation complaint against Union Minister Smriti Irani. According to the Lucknow bench of the high court, statements made about Singh's association with the Congress party or the "Gandhi family" while responding to journalists' queries did not constitute defamation against her.
The verdict, issued by Justice Faiz Alam Khan on March 5, was uploaded on Monday (March 12). Singh had filed a defamation case against Irani in the Sultanpur MP/MLA court, which was subsequently dismissed by the special court on October 21, 2022. Singh then appealed the decision of the MP/MLA court to the Allahabad High Court.
What was Singh's allegation?
Singh's allegation was that when journalists asked Irani about the allegations made by the petitioner against her personal secretary, Irani described the petitioner as a "pawn" of the Congress and said she had direct links with the Gandhi family.
Quoting Irani's entire conversation with journalists, the high court said that before giving the statement in question, Irani talked about other matters and during this time she did not even take the name of the petitioner.
What did the court say on Irani's statement?
The court said that when asked about the petitioner, Irani had said the petitioner had links with the Congress and also had a criminal history. The court found that criminal cases were registered against the petitioner. The bench said that if the court looked at Irani's statements, she was criticising a political party and she had no intention of defaming the petitioner.
With PTI inputs
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