A court in Ahmedabad has directed the Indian National Congress and four of its senior leaders to remove a purported deepfake video featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Gautam Adani from all social media platforms.
The order was passed on Thursday by Additional Civil Judge Shrikant Sharma while hearing a civil defamation suit filed by Adani Enterprises Limited.
48-hour deadline to take down video
The court directed the Congress party and its leaders — Jairam Ramesh, Supriya Shrinate, Pawan Khera and Uday Bhanu Chib — to remove the video within 48 hours of the order. The video had been posted on the Congress party’s X handle on December 17.
The court further ruled that if the defendants fail to comply, social media intermediaries X Corp and Google, both named as respondents, must take down the content within 72 hours.
Interim relief, notices issued
The court issued urgent show-cause notices to the Congress and the four leaders, returnable on December 29, the next date of hearing. It also granted liberty to the plaintiff to approach intermediaries under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, in case of non-compliance.
Allegations termed defamatory
In its plea, Adani Enterprises alleged that the defendants uploaded and circulated a deepfake video containing “wholly false, fabricated and baseless” allegations, including claims of corruption, land grabbing, misuse of political influence and engagement with criminal elements.
The company argued that terms such as “white-collar criminal” and “land mafia” used against it were per se defamatory and had caused serious harm to its reputation, credibility and goodwill built over decades. The plea also stated that the content violated the fundamental right to reputation under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Court cites risk of irreversible harm
Observing that the video contained “prima facie defamatory statements,” the court said continued circulation could irreparably damage the plaintiff’s reputation. Given the speed and scale of dissemination on social media, the court held that an ad-interim injunction was necessary to prevent further harm.