Mumbai: Observing that some of the content was “vile’’ “abusive’’ and “certainly defamatory’’, Bombay high court on Wednesday granted urgent interim relief to Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari and directed social media intermediaries to remove posts, including videos, that linked him to the ethanol-blended fuel (EBP) controversy.Gadkari had sought judicial intervention against Meta platforms, X Corp, Google LLC, and others to delete online content he alleged were “false, fabricated, and defamatory”, AI-generated deepfake videos and other manipulated digital content linking him incorrectly to EBP programme.Passing the order, a single-judge bench of Justice Arif Doctor said the online platforms ought to have prepared a framework to take down such content without necessitating a court intervention each time.Gadkari’s suit, argued by his counsel Sandeep Ladda, contended that the online posts went beyond legitimate political criticism or satire and transgressed on his personal rights, his public persona, his personality rights with “profane and abusive’’ content. The Union minister sought Rs 11 crore in damages from John Doe (unnamed and unidentified persons or entities) who posted the “malicious, false…’’ content.“I can only say that the same is absolutely vile and abusive,’’ Justice Doctor said, on seeing the content Ladda cited. “Such material should have no place on a public platform, which is accessible to everyone, including young.’’The HC asked the counsel for Meta and others, if the intermediaries had any measures in place for taking down defamatory content and directed them to give “basic customer information’’ of content creators which Gadkari can use to add them as parties.The Centre introduced ethanol-blended fuel in 2003 as a national policy and the programme is exclusively administered by the petroleum ministry, said Gadkari’s suit, where he has “no role’’ to play. Motorists and critics have claimed that blended fuel corrodes fuel tanks in older or non-compliant cars.The HC granted Gadkari the liberty to convey to the online platforms any future abusive content and to approach the court in case of any “grey area’’ and kept the matter after four weeks again.
