Cut them off, nothing should be touching the ground.

Any of mine that touch the ground get snipped off. I've got my plants caged so they grow up so this isn't a problem unless it's a younger plant.

Thanks. It is a young plant

As soon as my plants put out good sized leaves above the first level, I cut off the lower ones. If you go out after a rain and see that dirt has splashed up on to lower leaves, you might want to cut those off as well.

To avoid disease problems, mulch well from the day you plant out, so that the leaves don't touch the actual soil (even if they do touch the mulch because the plant is still so young).

Then once the plant is larger, cut off the lower leaflets which touch the mulch so slugs can't eat the leaves.