The Patna High Court (HC) on Wednesday directed the Congress to take off from its social media handles an AI-generated video depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his late mother.
Acting Chief Justice PB Bajanthri passed the order on a petition filed by advocate Vivekanand Singh and others, who had called the video a “defamatory publication” and violative of restraints placed on political parties under the Representation of the People Act.
ASG KN Singh, who appeared for the Union Government, said, “The court has made it clear that the video shall remain withdrawn till the next date of hearing.” In the petition, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Union Government and the Election Commission of India (ECI) were also named as respondents.
ECI’s counsel Siddharth Prasad said, “The court has also issued notices to Facebook, Twitter and Google, directing them to file their reply by the next date of hearing.” The HC is likely to mention the next date in the order sheet.Seeking to target the PM, the Bihar Congress had last week posted the video on its X handle, with a prompt in Hindi, “Sahab ke sapno mein aayi maa. Dekhiye rochak samvaad. (Mother came in sahab’s dream. Watch an interesting interaction between them.)”
