[Illegal Bar Row] Delhi High Court seeks Union Minister Smriti Irani's response on Twitter's application seeking clarification on court's last order

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Synopsis

The application has been filed in a by Union Minister Smriti Irani against Congress leaders who had accused Irani's daughter of running a restaurant bar in Goa “illegally”, with the license procured “fraudulently” in the name of a deceased person and have also demanded Irani's resignation.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Union Minister Smriti Irani over an application filed by micro-blogging site Twitter Inc. seeking clarification on Court's order in the matter pertaining to the alleged illegal bar row.

The order had directed removal of web links containing defamatory tweets against Irani.

Today, a bench of Justice Mini Pushkar issued notice in an application filed by Twitter challenging the High Court's July 29 order stating that they are bound to remove only that content for which links have been provided.

The High Court in its July 29 order had issued summons to Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera, and Netta D’Souza while asking them to remove their social media posts against Irani and her daughter Zoish Irani.

Irani had moved Delhi High Court against Congress leaders who had accused Irani's daughter of running a restaurant bar in Goa “illegally”, with the license procured “fraudulently” in the name of a deceased person and have also demanded Irani's resignation.

“Despite being fully aware of the fact that the applicant and her daughter are neither owner(s) of the premises or said restaurant, nor have they applied for any license in relation to the said restaurant, defendants [Congress leaders] deliberately made various defamatory statements imputing the character of the applicant and her daughter going to the extent of maliciously peddling lies by stating that the applicants’ daughter is purportedly indulging in corrupt practices and illegal activities under the patronage and knowledge of the applicant,” the suit reads.

Accordingly, the High Court passed an ad interim injunction directing the congress leaders to delete and remove the allegations from all social media platforms – Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 

In response to the summons issued by the High Court, Jairam Ramesh has tweeted,

“The Delhi High Court has issued notice asking us to formally reply to the case filed by Smriti Irani. We look forward to presenting the facts before the court. We will challenge and disprove the spin being put out by Ms. Irani.”

Case Title: SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI Vs. PAWAN KHERA & ORS.