The Delhi High Court said that neither Union Minister Smriti Irani, nor her daughter Zoish were the owners of a controversy-hit Goa bar (or the restaurant). The HC also noted that documents on record indicated that no license was ever issued in their favour. The development after the Minister filed a civil defamation suit against several Congress leaders.
The controversy had begun towards the end of last month as the Opposition party called for Irani to be sacked, alleging that her daughter was running an illegal bar in Goa. The Minister however had claimed that the “malicious” charge was made at the behest of the Gandhi family due to her vocal stand in the National Herald-linked money laundering case, and vowed to fight back.
Last week on Friday the Delhi High Court had issued summons to Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Netta D’Souza and asked them to take down tweets and other social media posts on allegations levelled against the union minister and her daughter.
Irani, the Minister for Women and Child Development, has sought damages of over Rs 2 crore from the Congress leaders for allegedly making baseless and false accusations against her and her 18-year-old daughter. She had approached the court after the Congress leaders failed to respond to the legal notice sent to them by her.
“After seeing the documents placed on record and the excerpts of the press conference, I am of the prima facie view that slanderous allegations were made against the plaintiff without verifying actual facts. Grave injury has been caused to the reputation of the plaintiff in view of the tweets and retweets carried out due to the press conference of the defendants,” the judge had opined last week, dubbing the remarks made by the Congress leaders ‘slanderous’ and ‘bogus’
