On Thursday, Adani Enterprise Limited moved a plea seeking urgent ad-interim relief from the court against the Indian National Congress. (File photo/Representational)
A civil court in Ahmedabad granted urgent ad-interim and ex-parte relief to Adani Enterprise Limited by directing the Indian National Congress and four of the party’s leaders to remove ‘defamatory’ deepfake videos featuring industrialist Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from social media platforms within 48 hours of the order. The relief, granted on Thursday, has also directed social media intermediaries – X and YouTube – to take down the videos within 72 hours.
The court also issued an urgent notice to all the defendants to show cause on the next date of hearing as to why the relief claimed by the Adani Group should not be granted. On Thursday, Adani Enterprise Limited moved a plea seeking urgent ad-interim relief from the court against the Indian National Congress through its General Secretary along with individual leaders – General Secretary Jairam Ramesh, Chairperson (Social Media and Digital Platforms) Supriya Shrinate, National Spokesperson Pawan Khera, president of Indian Youth Congress Uday Bhanu Chib as well as ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) and YouTube India.
The court order of Additional Civil Judge Shrikant Sharma notes that the plea has contended that in the said videos, the defendants accused the Adani Group of “criminal activity, corruption, land grabbing, misuse of political influence, harassment of private citizens, illegal acquisition of agricultural land, manipulation of public authorities, and engagement with criminal elements”, which the plea asserts are “wholly false, fabricated, baseless and actuated by malice”. Senior Advocate Devang Nanavati and Advocate P V Sharma made submissions on behalf of Adani Enterprise in the Ahmedabad court on Thursday.
Adani Enterprise Limited also submitted in its plea that the videos “seek to portray him (Adani) as a ‘white-collar criminal’, ‘land mafia’, ‘politically connected offender’, and a person indulging in abuse of power,” which are “defamatory expressions… circulated to the general public without any factual basis”, the court order notes. The said videos were posted on Congress’s X handle on December 17.
Considering the plea that the false material has caused “irreparable damage and is likely to mislead the public, colleagues in corporate institutions, individuals in government and administration, as well as the general populace at large”, the plea invokes Adani’s Fundamental Right to Reputation under Article 21 of Constitution of India, the court order notes.
The court order states, “the Plaintiff is a diversified group in India comprising 10 publicly traded companies and has pan India presence and has presence in transport logistics and energy utility portfolio businesses in India, consequently, any defamatory content or negative posts published on social media platforms targeting the plaintiff are likely to tarnish their reputation, undermine their goodwill, and cause significant harm to their public image in the eyes of society at large.”
The order also provides that Adani Enterprises is at liberty to approach the intermediaries concerned – X and YouTube, “in the event of non-compliance by the defendants” to initiate a take down process in accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021.”
The court will hear the case on December 29.
