Bombay High Court Permits Nitin Gadkari To Sue X, Meta, Google Over Alleged Deepfake Posts Linking Him To E20 Petrol Policy

The Bombay High Court on Monday (July 27) permitted Union Minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari to sue X, Meta, Google and unknown others over the alleged defamatory, deepfake and AI generated posts linking him to the Ethanol-blended fuel controversy. Single-judge Justice Abhay Ahuja granted the leave for Gakdari to proceed with filing a substantive civil suit against the concerned respondents and seeking appropriate reliefs for removal of the alleged defamatory content available on social media platforms and the internet. Gadkari petitioned the single-judge bench under clause XII of the Letters Patent, which is a procedural requirement wherein permission of the court is sought when part of the cause of action arises outside the territorial jurisdiction of the High Court. He has moved the High Court through advocate Sandeep S Ladda.A detailed order of Justice Ahuja is yet to be made available.