Court Allows Nitin Gadkari to Sue Over Defamatory Deepfake Content
Legal Action Against Deepfake Posts
On July 27, the Bombay High Court granted permission to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari to file a civil suit against Meta Platforms, X Corp, Google LLC, and other unidentified individuals regarding allegedly defamatory deepfake and AI-generated posts. Gadkari, who serves as the Minister of Road Transport and Highways and is a prominent leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), submitted a petition under Section 12 of the Letters Patent. This procedural provision requires court approval before filing a lawsuit if the cause of action arises outside the jurisdiction of the High Court.
This permission is essential to enable the court to hear and decide on the case despite jurisdictional limitations. The single bench led by Justice Abhay Ahuja heard Gadkari's petition on Monday. His attorney, Sandeep Ladda, argued that the online platforms had made the alleged defamatory and deepfake content publicly accessible, including to users in Maharashtra.
Ladda emphasized that since this content is available within the state, a significant part of the legal action arises in Maharashtra. Accepting the arguments, Justice Ahuja permitted Gadkari to proceed with the civil suit against the online platforms. In his proposed suit, Gadkari claims that numerous fake, AI-generated, and defamatory materials related to the issue of ethanol-blended fuel are circulating on the internet.
The proposed suit states that unidentified individuals have uploaded and disseminated posts and deepfake content that falsely implicate him as personally responsible for the ethanol-blended fuel initiative, claiming that he and his family have financially benefited from it. The suit asserts that the allegations made in these posts are entirely false, malicious, and severely defamatory, aimed at creating a misleading perception of Gadkari among the public. Through this lawsuit, Gadkari seeks a permanent injunction against the spread of such fake and false content.