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HC issues notice to Smriti Irani on Twitter plea for clarification
Congress leaders have alleged that the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and her daughter had links with the upmarket restaurant in Goa – Silly Souls Café and Bar
The Delhi high court on Tuesday sought Union minister Smriti Irani’s response on a plea by Twitter seeking clarification of the earlier court order directing it to remove web links of objectionable comments made against the minister and her daughter by three Congress leaders, in connection to a restaurant in Goa.
The Congress leaders have alleged that the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and her daughter had links with the upmarket restaurant in Goa – Silly Souls Café and Bar.
On July 29, the court had directed social media platforms to remove the allegations, videos, posts, tweets, re-tweets, captions, taglines along with the morphed pictures of the plaintiff and her daughter, in case three Congress leaders — Jairam Ramesh, Netta D’ Souza and Pawan Khera — don’t remove the content within 24 hours.
The order had come after Irani had filed a civil defamation suit seeking removal of posts as an interim relief, while also asking damages to the tune of ₹2 crore.
On Tuesday, Justice Mini Pushkarna issued notice to Irani on an application filed by Twitter in which it sought clarification in the July 29 order to the effect that the platform is only bound to take down similar material which is found to be defamatory on being provided with URLs by plaintiff Irani.
Twitter sought clarification that the order is to be directed against defendants 1 to 3 (Congress leaders) and not against the social media platform.
As Irani’s counsel sought time to respond to the application, the high court granted two weeks.
Earlier, Google had told the high court that it had complied with the order to remove web links allegedly containing objectionable material against Irani and her daughter and had said the BJP leader may provide other URLs on which action will be taken.
Google’s counsel had submitted that only one URL was provided to them by Irani and the same has been disabled. The high court had also issued notice on Google’s application seeking modification in the July 29 order and asked the BJP leader to respond to it.
On July 23, the Congress leaders had held a press conference leveling a series of allegations against Irani and her daughter regarding a statutory license in respect of food and beverages operations at Silly Souls Cafe and Bar in Goa.
In its July 29 order, the court had said that the comments were prima facie “slanderous”, and should be removed.
It had held that Irani and her daughter were neither owners of the restaurant-cum-bar, nor was a license ever issued in their favour, and said the statements by three Congress leaders against them seem to be “bogus with malicious intent”.
