Bombay High Court Slates Gadkari’s Deepfake Defamation Hearing for August 5
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is pursuing an 11-crore rupee defamation suit against tech giants over AI-generated content. The legal action targets false claims linking the minister to the national Ethanol Blending Programme.
Legal Proceedings and Ministerial Denial
The Bombay High Court has rescheduled the hearing for Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s civil suit against major social media platforms to August 5, 2026. Justice Arif Doctor, presiding over the Bench on Tuesday, July 28, instructed the minister’s legal counsel, Sandeep S. Ladda, to ensure all respondents receive copies of the suit before the next session. The litigation names Meta, X, Google, and several anonymous users as defendants in a case centered on the spread of manipulated digital content.
Gadkari, who has served as the Union Minister of Road Transport since 2014, categorically denies any official involvement in the government's E20 policy. The lawsuit identifies 24 specific social media posts containing AI-generated deepfakes. Gadkari alleges these materials falsely cast him as the architect of the Ethanol Blending Programme (EBP) to damage his public standing. Consequently, the minister seeks ₹11 crore in damages and a court order to scrub the defamatory content from the internet.
The Ethanol Blending Context
Justice Abhay Ahuja provided background on the underlying policy during an earlier session on July 27. The EBP is a long-standing national initiative launched in 2003 to integrate ethanol into the domestic petrol supply. Key milestones of the programme include:
- Implementation under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
- A phased rollout that reached a 20% blending target (E20) during the 2025-2026 period.
- Frequent government clarifications via official press releases to explain the technical and administrative nature of the policy.
The minister maintains that because the Petroleum Ministry manages the EBP, the viral posts linking him to the 20% blending mandate are factually baseless and malicious. As the August 5 date approaches, the court will weigh the responsibility of digital platforms in moderating synthetic media that targets high-ranking public officials.
Source: The Hindu — News
