There is a thin line between political criticism and defamation, the Delhi High Court told MP Raghav Chadha as he sought taking down of “defamatory” content allegedly showing that he “sold himself for money" after his switch to the BJP from AAP.
Chadha had filed a lawsuit in the high court against the publication of alleged malicious and fabricated social media posts that, he said, are gravely prejudicial to his reputation and personality rights, news agency PTI reported. Chadha was represented by senior advocate Rajiv Nayar who contended there were posts with profane content.
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"The line between defamation and criticism is quite thin, right? It's very easy to slip to the other side, which affects your right to live with dignity and you cannot infringe on this side at the same time. Your Article 19 (1) (a) right also cannot be taken away," the court added.
The high court reserved its verdict on the aspect of interim relief to take down such alleged offending content. Justice Subramonium Prasad acknowledged that while an individual has the right to live with dignity, the right to free speech under the Constitution also cannot be taken away.
{{/usCountry}}The high court reserved its verdict on the aspect of interim relief to take down such alleged offending content. Justice Subramonium Prasad acknowledged that while an individual has the right to live with dignity, the right to free speech under the Constitution also cannot be taken away.
{{/usCountry}}"It is a comment by an individual criticizing a political decision... As a political leader, can you be sensitive," Justice Prasad was quoted as saying during the hearing.
"Right from Independence, we have grown up seeing R K Laxman's cartoons... In various ways criticism has been made on decisions taken politically, economically... Now social media has gone to greater extent. But still at the end of the day, it's still within the realm of a comment by a person," the judge said.
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Advocate Nayar said that posts implying he "traded for money" cannot be termed as “fair criticism” and said that the offending posts "can't stay even for a day", Justice Prasad responded that prima facie they only appeared to be criticism.
"According to me, prima facie, these are all only criticism of a political decision," the judge orally said.
Notably, the judge suggested appointing an amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter given the fact that the alleged offending posts against Chadha were by unknown individuals.
The judge also stated that there was a difference between commercializing personality rights and political criticism.
Chadha's senior lawyer said he was pressing his claim on the basis of defamation at this stage, not violation of personality rights.
Chadha, also represented by advocates Satatya Anand and Nikhil Aradhe, in his plea sought immediate removal and takedown of false, AI-generated and deepfake content circulating widely across social media platforms.
The lawsuit contended that artificial intelligence and deepfake technology were being used in an unauthorized manner to create and disseminate manipulated content, which was a serious infringement of Chadha's legal and constitutional rights.