Despite all the Congress propaganda stating otherwise, Delhi High Court has noted that neither Smriti Irani nor her teenage daughter Zoish Irani was ever issued a license in connection with a restaurant named Silly Souls Cafe and Bar located in Goa.
Justice Mini Pushkarna made these observations while issuing summons to Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera, and Netta D’Souza in a civil defamation suit filed by Union Minister Smriti Irani against them seeking damages of Rupees 2 Crores for their libellous statements.
The court made several scathing observations, including the fact that Smriti Irani or her daughter did not own the Goa restaurant and bar. This order by the High Court, was by all accounts, a scathing indictment of how the Congress tried to peddle absolute lies against Smriti Irani, her teenage daughter and the BJP in order to malign her reputation, perhaps because Smriti Irani had defeated Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, and had regularly held press conferences questioning the Gandhis about their rampant corruption (for which they are being interrogated by ED).
With the massive embarrassment for Congress, friendly channels like NDTV jumped to their rescue. In a tweet that the channel shared, they tried to water down the observation made by the High Court in favour of Smriti Irani and against the Congress party.
On August 1st, NDTV shared a news card, the text of which said, “Smriti Irani, daughter, don’t seem to own Goa restaurant and bar: High Court Order”.
NDTV appears to have inserted the word “seem” in the statement attributed to the High Court order with an intention to downplay the scathing remarks by the high court. While NDTV reported that the HC order said, “Smriti Irani, daughter don’t SEEM to own Goa restaurant and bar”, the order by the High Court actually did not even contain the word “seem”.
Here is the relevant portion of the court order that NDTV was quoting:
In the order copy, the court says, “Neither the restaurant nor the land on which the restaurant exists is owned by the plaintiff or her daughter”.
In the original court order, there is no “seem” in the sentence being quoted by NDTV. Therefore, it is safe to assume that NDTV, from the goodness of his heart, added the word “seem” to dilute the words of the High Court.
When the media adds words like “seem” in a statement, they are essentially saying that the High Court did not give a definitive statement indicting Congress and affirming the position of Smriti Irani. However, that is not true if one peruses the Court order.
NDTV pandered to Congress while diluting the position taken by the High Court, by giving them a line of survival, claiming that the court did not give a sweeping judgement against Congress.
What else did the High Court say, slamming Congress, exonerating the position of Smriti Irani
The High Court said that prima facie, the court was convinced that the statements against Smriti Irani were libellous and slanderous and done with malicious intent.
The court also said that the Congress party did not verify facts before making the allegations. Further, the court said that there was malicious intent was proven by the fact that the accused did not even respond to the legal notice furnished by Smriti Irani.
Earlier, Congress leaders in a press conference had alleged that the restaurant ‘Silly Souls Cafe and Bar’ is run by Union Smriti Irani’s daughter in Goa, and it had got its excise license fraudulently. Following the allegations, Smriti Irani sent a legal notice to Congress and its senior leaders Pawan Khera, Jairam Ramesh, and Netta D’Souza over their malicious allegations against her daughter and asked them to tender a written unconditional apology.
The hit-job against Irani and her daughter didn’t stop with the fake allegations by the Congress leaders, fake menus of the restaurant were circulated with beef in the menu to try and demonise the BJP leader. Senior Trinamool Congress leaders like Kirti Azad even posted highly derogatory caricatures of Irani in the aftermath of the manufactured controversy.
Meanwhile, on Friday, July 29, owners of the restaurant Merlyn Anthony D’Gama and her son Dean D’Gama replied to a show cause notice issued by Excise Commissioner Narayan M Gad. In the reply, they stated that the property “is exclusively its business and involves no other person/ persons”.
However, once the case went to court, the High Court asked the Congress leaders involved to delete all allegations made by them in their press conference from all social media platforms.