Goa bar row: Delhi HC seeks Smriti Irani's response on Twitter application in defamation case filed by her
Aug 23, 2022
New Delhi [India], August 23 : The Delhi High court on Tuesday sought the response of Union Minister Smriti Irani on an application by Twitter seeking certain clarifications in its July 29 order in which it had directed the microblogging site to remove "objectionable material" over Congress allegations in the Goa bar row case.
The bench of Justice Mini Pushkarna sought Smriti Irani's response on a plea in which Twitter prayed for clarification in the July 29 order and said it is only bound to take down "similar material" which is found to be defamatory on being provided with URLs by the plaintiff.
Earlier Google had also moved an application and sought modification of the court's earlier order.
The social media platforms said they need specific links to be removed and the ones which were available, have been removed.
"We are intermediaries. What we require is that plaintiffs may give URLs, we will take them off. If we have doubts, we can inform the plaintiff and the plaintiff can then approach the court. We are not an adjudicating body. We cannot decide what's similar. Plaintiff is under obligation to give me links," the plea said.
The Union Minister had recently moved the Delhi High court against Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and others for alleged defamatory allegations against her daughter. The Delhi High Court had on July 29 issued summons to Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Netta D'souza in a civil suit filed by Smriti Irani.
It had said that neither the union minister nor her daughter were the owners of the restaurant in Goa. They had directed the Congress leaders to remove the post, videos, tweets, retweets, with the allegations and stop their recirculation regarding allegations made against her and her daughter.
The court had also said if the defendants (three Congress leaders) fail to comply with the directions within 24 hours of the order, social media platforms, Google, Youtube, Twitter and others are directed to take down the material.
Smriti Irani had filed civil defamation seeking permanent and mandatory injunction along with damages of over Rs 2 crore and stated that the three Congress leaders conspired with other unknown individuals to make scathing and belligerent personal remarks.
