Rewritten version:
An Ahmedabad civil court has directed the Indian National Congress and four of its leaders to remove a deepfake video featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Gautam Adani from all social media platforms, including X, within 48 hours.
The order was passed by Additional Civil Judge Shrikant Sharma while granting ad-interim relief in a civil suit filed by Adani Enterprises Limited. The court instructed Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Supriya Shrinate, Pawan Khera and Bhanu Chib to take down the video, which was uploaded on social media on December 17.
The court further directed social media platforms X and Google to remove the video within 72 hours if the Congress fails to comply with the order within the stipulated 48-hour period. Both X and Google have been named as defendants in the case.
The court also observed that in case of non-compliance, the plaintiff is at liberty to approach the concerned intermediaries under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, for appropriate takedown action.
In its suit, Adani Enterprises Limited claimed that the video attempted to portray Gautam Adani as a “white-collar criminal”, “land mafia” and a “politically connected offender”, allegations which the company described as baseless and defamatory. The plaintiff stated that such content violates the fundamental right to reputation under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The company asserted that Gautam Adani has never been involved in any criminal activity and has not been held guilty by any competent authority. It added that defamatory content circulating on social media could damage the group’s reputation, goodwill and public image.
The court has issued notices to all defendants, returnable on December 29.