Delhi High Court seeks response from Hardeep Puri's daughter on plea to lift blocking of articles linking her to Jeffrey Epstein

The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice to Union Minister Hardeep Puri’s daughter Himayani Puri in RTI activist Kunal Shukla's plea to lift an earlier injunction by which articles linking her to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were blocked [Himayani Puri V Kunal Shukla]..Justice Mini Pushkarna today issued notice to Puri on Shukla's application."Let me issue notice. Let them file a reply," the judge said..Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Shukla, urged the Court to vacate the March 17 interim injunction order passed on the last date of hearing, citing provisions of Civil Procedure Code (CPC)."I am only arguing that Your Lordship has an obligation under the CPC to decide the injunction itself within 30 days."The Court has now posted the matter for hearing on May 7..Himayani Puri, a US citizen, moved the Court seeking ₹10 crore as damages, a permanent injunction against several social media entities and John Doe parties (unknown persons), and the removal of defamatory content published across the world on various online platforms.According to Puri’s suit, starting from February 22 this year, several social media entities started making allegations that she (Puri) maintained direct or indirect business, financial, personal, or other network associations with Jeffrey Epstein and/or his criminal activities.The articles alleged that Real Partners LLC, where Puri was employed, received funding, financial benefits, or tainted funds from Epstein or his associates and that one Robert Millard allegedly acted in concert with Puri to engineer the collapse of Lehman Brothers.Puri argued that these allegations were entirely false, malicious and devoid of any factual foundation.She said that she was being targeted in a coordinated and motivated manner with the clear intention of maligning and discrediting her, both in India and on a global scale and that it was being done only because she is Hardeep Puri’s daughter..On March 17, the Court directed several social media entities who had uploaded the content, including John Doe defendants (persons whose identities are unknown), to remove the content within a day.The Bench said that if the uploaders fail to take down the posts, videos and links, social media intermediaries should block the content. However, the Court clarified that this content blocking order against intermediaries would be confined to articles uploaded from and available in India and no global blocking order was being passed against the intermediaries at this stage.This was in view of concerns by various internet intermediaries, including Google and Meta, about whether an Indian court can issue global content blocking orders that would affect content uploaded from or available in other countries as well.Various parties arrayed as defendants in Puri's suit were ordered to take down URLs to content flagged in the plea as defamatory. The Court also granted Puri liberty to inform the social media platforms concerned if similar new content is uploaded so that they too may be taken down. The Court further took note of Puri's plea for a global blocking order and the request by social media intermediaries not to pass such an order right away since a related legal question is presently pending before a Division Bench.Shukla then moved the Court to take a final decision on the injunction plea. The Court today issued notice to Puri on the same. .Senior Advocate Vikas Singh appeared for Kunal Shukla.Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani appeared for Puri. Advocate Varun Pathak appeared for Meta Platforms..[Live Coverage]