MUMBAI, Aug 5 : The Bombay High Court on Wednesday termed social media posts and online content targeting Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari as “vile, abusive, obscene and defamatory” and directed Meta, X Corp and Google LLC to immediately remove the material.
Granting interim relief to Gadkari, Justice Arif Doctor observed that such content had no place on online platforms, particularly when it was accessible to the public, including young users.
“These posts, on the face of it, are abusive, vile and obscene,” the court said while ordering the immediate takedown of the content.
The court also questioned the social media platforms over the absence of effective mechanisms to automatically detect and remove abusive or defamatory content without requiring victims to seek judicial intervention.
“With all this technology at your disposal, don’t you have some mechanism where there should be triggers? If someone uploads something vulgar or abusive, it should immediately be picked up and deleted. This is absolutely vile. Someone is just spewing venom,” Justice Doctor remarked.
The High Court further directed that if similar defamatory content, including deepfakes or AI-generated material, is uploaded in future, Gadkari may approach the platforms directly, which should act promptly on such complaints.
Observing that online platforms must develop systems to voluntarily remove such content, the court posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks and directed the respondents to file their replies.
Gadkari had moved the High Court last week, filing a civil suit against Meta, X Corp, Google LLC and unidentified persons over allegedly defamatory deepfakes and AI-generated posts linked to the ethanol-blended fuel policy.
Represented by advocate Sandeep Ladda, the Union Minister sought immediate removal of the content, a permanent injunction against its circulation, and Rs 11 crore in damages for alleged defamation.
The petition stated that unknown individuals had circulated fabricated AI-generated videos and posts falsely portraying Gadkari as being personally responsible for the ethanol programme and claiming that he and his family had financially benefited from the policy.
According to the plea, the allegations were “false, malicious and grossly defamatory” and were intended to damage Gadkari’s reputation and create a misleading public perception.
The petition also clarified that the ethanol-blending programme and the E20 policy are administered by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, not by Gadkari personally, while emphasising that the suit was aimed at addressing defamatory misinformation and not curbing legitimate public debate or fair criticism.
