DELHI HIGH COURT ORDERS REMOVAL OF SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS LINKING HARDEEP PURI’S DAUGHTER TO JEFFREY EPSTEIN:

The Delhi High Court has ordered the removal of social media posts and other online content that falsely link Himayani Puri, the daughter of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, to the late convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The directive, issued on March 17, 2026, requires the content to be taken down within 24 hours.

Justice Mini Pushkarna, who heard the defamation lawsuit filed by Himayani Puri, granted interim relief after observing that the plaintiff had established a prima facie case in her favour. The court noted that she would suffer irreparable injury to her reputation if such relief was not granted immediately. Consequently, the judge restrained several users and entities from publishing, circulating, or disseminating any material linking her to Epstein or his criminal activities on social media platforms or any other online medium.

The order specifies that if the individuals responsible for uploading the content do not remove it within the stipulated 24-hour period, the concerned social media platforms and intermediaries must take it down or block access to it. For material uploaded from Indian IP addresses, complete removal is mandated, while content originating from outside India must be blocked to prevent access within the country. The court clarified that no global takedown was being ordered at this stage, as the broader issue of global injunctions remains pending before another bench.

Himayani Puri, a New York-based finance and investment professional, approached the court seeking damages of Rs 10 crore, along with a permanent injunction against the dissemination of the defamatory material and an unconditional apology from the defendants. In her plea, she described the campaign as a coordinated and malicious online effort that began around February 22, 2026. A series of false, misleading, and defamatory posts, articles, videos, and other digital content were published and amplified across platforms including X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, digital news portals, and various web-based publications.

Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, representing Himayani Puri, argued that she maintains a strong global reputation as a finance professional that needs protection. He emphasized that the allegations against her were entirely false, reckless, and malicious. According to the lawsuit, the defendants had spread baseless imputations suggesting that she maintained direct or indirect business, financial, personal, or other network links with Epstein and his crimes. Himayani Puri asserted that these claims were completely devoid of any factual foundation and that she was being targeted solely because she is the daughter of the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas.

The Epstein files refer to thousands of pages of court documents from criminal investigations into sex trafficking involving Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. These include travel logs, emails, recordings, and other materials that have generated public discussion since Epstein’s death in custody in 2019.

The Delhi High Court has now listed the matter for further hearing in August. This interim order provides immediate relief to Himayani Puri while the full suit proceeds, underscoring the court’s recognition of the potential harm caused by unchecked defamatory content in the digital age.