Delhi HC questions Raghav Chadha's plea on deepfakes, says criticism is not defamation

The Delhi High Court on Thursday expressed preliminary doubts over a plea by Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha, who sought protection of his personality rights against AI-generated deepfakes, manipulated videos, and defamatory social media posts related to his switch from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Justice Subramonium Prasad observed that the contested material appeared to be political criticism rather than a violation of personality rights, noting that the line between defamation and criticism is 'quite thin'.

'The first impression... Prima facie, there is no personality right violation,' the court said, adding that 'a decision taken by you in the political arena is being criticised'.

Senior advocate Rajiv Nayar, representing Chadha, argued that the online content crossed into defamation, with posts falsely claiming Chadha 'sold himself for money'. He sought interim relief to restrain such content.

Justice Prasad questioned whether the grievance fell within the scope of personality rights, which generally protect commercial or identifiable attributes of a person. The court distinguished between 'commercialising personality rights and criticism'. It cited a precedent from the Shashi Tharoor case, where personality rights were protected due to his distinctive style of speech and demeanour.

The court also emphasised that while the right to reputation and dignity is protected under the Constitution, freedom of speech under Article 19 cannot be curtailed lightly. After Nayar pressed for interim relief, the court directed that the plaint be registered as a suit and reserved its order on the interim plea.