The Bombay high court on Monday permitted Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari to file a civil suit against Meta, X Corp (formerly Twitter), Google LLC, and other platforms over alleged defamatory posts and artificial intelligence (AI) generated deepfake content on social media targeting him and his family.
A single-judge bench of justice Abhay Ahuja allowed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader to institute the suit against the social media platforms, enabling him to file for interim relief and a temporary injunction against allegedly defamatory and deepfake content falsely associating him with the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme and the E20 initiative.
Launched in 2014 to cut crude oil imports, the EBP programme has scaled rapidly since 2021 by incrementally blending ethanol produced from sugarcane, rice, and maize with petrol, reaching a milestone of 20% blending (E20) in 2025, five years ahead of the original target.
According to the plea filed through advocate Sandeep S Ladda, the defamatory content about Gadkari has been published, circulated and made available on the digital platforms owned, operated and/or administered by Meta, X Corp, and Google, and are freely accessible to the public.
“The defendants have intentionally made such content available to the public at large. These individuals are directly responsible for circulating, malicious, false, derogatory, and abusive content concerning the petitioner, including posts, tweets, reels, videos, photographs or any other digital or electronic material using AI-generated deepfake, morphed, manipulated or otherwise fabricated audio-visual content simulating the Petitioner's name, image, and likeness, without his knowledge, consent or authorisation”, the Union minister’s petition stated.
{{/usCountry}}“The defendants have intentionally made such content available to the public at large. These individuals are directly responsible for circulating, malicious, false, derogatory, and abusive content concerning the petitioner, including posts, tweets, reels, videos, photographs or any other digital or electronic material using AI-generated deepfake, morphed, manipulated or otherwise fabricated audio-visual content simulating the Petitioner's name, image, and likeness, without his knowledge, consent or authorisation”, the Union minister’s petition stated.
{{/usCountry}}It sought leave from the high court under Clause XII of the Letters Patent Act, 1866, to institute a suit against the defendants and seek interim orders for removal of the purportedly offending content.
The plea was filed after a complaint was filed by BJP Nagpur City Social Media Cell Convener Shishir Arun Tripathi last month over videos and posts circulated baseless and objectionable claims about Gadkari and E20 fuel “that could mislead the public, confuse citizens and disturb peace.”
In response to the digital evidence submitted, the police have registered a first information report (FIR) under Sections 356, 352, and 296 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, alongside Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 against people who have posted the alleged deep-fake videos, defaming the Union minister.
The E20 row and Gadkari's defence
The development comes amid criticism of the E20 policy, which holds provision for 20% ethanol to be blended in petrol in order to curb fuel imports and lower vehicle emissions. However, several vehicle owners have flagged concerns with its usage, especially in the vehicle models manufactured before 2023.
However, Gadkari has always backed the ethanol-blending programme. Earlier this month, he even threw a big challenge to critics, asking them to name one single car that had suffered problems because of the fuel.
“There is no case of any car facing issues due to E20 petrol. Has there been any car in the country that faced issues due to the use of E20 petrol? Just name one”, news agency PTI had quoted him as saying.
Case against content creators
Weeks before Gadkari's plea in court, cases were filed against some content creators in Maharashtra for allegedly spreading misinformation about Gadkari. As reported by news agency ANI, the complaint in Nagpur targeted a YouTube video uploaded on July 3, 2026 by creator Manish Kasyap, as well as posts from other accounts including 'Desi Boys', 'Harshit Rathi', and ‘Anklesh Inwati’.
The videos and posts circulated baseless and objectionable claims about Gadkari and E20 fuel that could mislead the public, confuse citizens and disturb peace, the complaint had said. It was filed by BJP Nagpur City Social Media Cell Convener Shishir Arun Tripathi.
Meanwhile, just as uproar over the NEET paper leak has simmered down following Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation, Nitin Gadkari seems to have become the new target. An X account named ‘E20 Janta Party’ has gained attention on social media, similar to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) which was also started as satire and later led a big student protest in Delhi.