Defamation case against Smriti Irani: HC junks shooter Vartika Singh's plea

The Allahabad High Court has dismissed international shooter Vartika Singh's plea challenging an MP/MLA court order rejecting her defamation complaint against Union minister Smriti Irani.

The Lucknow bench of the high court said that while replying to journalists' questions, if the petitioner was said to be associated with the Congress party or the "Gandhi family", it was not her defamation.

The bench of Faiz Alam Khan passed the verdict on March 5 which was uploaded on Monday.

Vartika Singh had filed a case in the Sultanpur MP/MLA court, accusing Irani of defamation. The case was dismissed by the special court on October 21, 2022.

The petitioner had challenged the MP/MLA court's order in the high court.

Singh's allegation was that when journalists asked Irani about the allegations made by the petitioner against her personal secretary, Irani described the petitioner as a "pawn" of the Congress and said she was having direct links with the Gandhi family.

Quoting Irani's entire conversation with journalists, the high court said that before giving the statement in question, Irani talked about other matters and during this time she did not even take the name of the petitioner.

The court said that when asked about the petitioner, Irani had said the petitioner had links with the Congress and also had a criminal history. The court found that criminal cases were registered against the petitioner.

The bench said that if the court looks at Irani's statements, she was criticising a political party and she had no intention of defaming the petitioner.