The Delhi High Court has summoned Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera, and Netta D’souza in a civil suit filed by Union Minister Smriti Irani. Union Minister Smriti Irani had issued a legal notice to Congress leaders for dragging her personal life into politics and casting aspersions on her 18-year-old daughter, Zoish Irani.
In a notice addressed to Congress leaders Pawan Khera, Jairam Ramesh, Netta D’Souza, and the party itself through its President, Sonia Gandhi, Irani had sought them to cease and desist from the dissemination of defamatory, derogatory, false, and misleading information and allegations on her daughter. Now the Delhi High Court has summoned these Congress leaders in this case.
#BREAKING | Delhi High Court issues summons to Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Netta D’souza in civil suit filed by Union Minister Smriti Irani; Tune in #LIVE here – pic.twitter.com/PrpWKhsDDn
— Republic (@republic) July 29, 2022
In the order, Justice Mini Pushkarna instructed the Congress leaders to remove all allegedly defamatory materials from social media platforms within 24 hours. If they fail, the court has instructed the social media companies to do it.
Justice Mini Pushkarna has further directed the congress leaders to remove all allegedly defamatory materials from social media platforms within 24 hours. If they fail, the social media companies will do it.#DelhiHighCourt @smritiirani@Pawankhera @Jairam_Ramesh
— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) July 29, 2022
Responding to Delhi HC summons, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took to Twitter to state he would challenge Union Minister Smriti Irani in the court.
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.
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) July 29, 2022
In her notice, Smriti Irani had said that the above leaders have conspired with each other and with other unknown individuals and organizations to launch a series of scathing and belligerent personal attacks against her with an oblique motive to malign, defame, injure her and the family’s reputation based on series of falsehoods and gross misinterpretation.
On Saturday, 23rd July 2022, the Congress leaders accused Smriti Irani’s 18-year-old daughter Zoish Irani of running an illegal bar in Goa and asked PM Modi to sack Irani from the cabinet. Rubbishing allegations against her daughter, Irani hauled Congress leaders over the coals and challenged them to show her daughter’s name in the show cause notice they had flashed in the press conference.
After the Congress leaders hurled allegations against Union Minister Smriti Irani’s daughter, the minister said in her notice, that the allegations were made on the behest of the congress leaders at the press briefing addressed at Congress party headquarters.
Irani, in her legal notice, had reiterated that her daughter Zoish was never involved in running any bar in Goa and that she had also never applied for any license for ‘running’ any bar or for any business enterprise. Further, she has also not been served any show cause notice from the Excise Department of Goa to date. Along with this notice, Smriti Irani had filed the defamation suit seeking Rs 2 crore as damages.
