The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to pass any blanket interim order for removal of defamatory content and protecting the personality rights of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament (MP) Raghav Chadha.However, Justice Subramonium Prasad ordered for removal of content flagged in six documents to which Chadha had taken objection. "I have ordered the removal of five (sic) documents. Rest of the content is not defamatory," the judge said.."The Defendants No. 2 and 4 are directed to provide the Plaintiff with Basic Subscriber Information (BSI), IP logs of the accounts associated with the content mentioned in Documents No. 2, 8, 9, 11, 25 and 40 within a period of two weeks from the date of this Order," the Court ordered. .Notably, while hearing arguments on the interim injunction application on May 21, the Court had made a prima facie remark that the content flagged by Chadha did not reveal any violation of personality rights.Rather, it was more of political criticism, the Court had then said."See, the point is this, sir. The first impression in my mind. Prima facie, there is no personality right involved in this case. A decision taken by you in a political arena is being criticised... Undoubtedly, right from independence, we have grown up seeing RK Laxman’s cartoons. The way criticisms are made of decisions taken. Probably at that time, social media had not gone to that extent. Now it has gone to a greater extent," the Court said..Chadha moved the Court seeking an injunction against AI- generated deepfakes, manipulated videos, synthetic voice cloning, morphed visuals, fabricated speeches, and deceptive digital content circulated across social media platforms.The Court was told that several pictures depicted Chadha in a saree and Prime Minister Narendra Modi showering money on him. This was after Chadha, who was nominated to the Rajya Sabha on Aam Aadmi Party ticket, defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in April this year. Chadha's lawyers argued that the content flagged was profane and defamatory and amounted to an allegation that he sold himself for money. During the hearing of the matter, Justice Prasad said that the issue seemed more about defamation and not personality rights and that there was a distinction between a defamation suit and a suit for protection of personality rights.Justice Prasad also asked a political leader can be so sensitive."At the end of the day, it’s still within the realm of a comment by a person. Please understand. A comment by a person criticising a political decision from where does… When you look at all these photographs… Please understand it is an attack or a critique… Please understand. As a political leader, can you be so sensitive?" the Court said.The judge further said that he may appoint an amicus curiae as the defendants were unidentified. However, Chadha's counsel said that they were pressing for interim relief. Therefore, the Court heard the arguments before proceeding to pass an interim order today..Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar argued Chadha's case. The suit was filed through advocates Satatya Anand and Nikhil Aradhe.Update: The judge said in open court that he has ordered removal of content flagged in five documents. However, as per the judgment copy made available later, the Court has directed removal of content flagged by Chadha in six documents and not five. The story has been updated to reflect the same.
