Bombay HC permits Minister Nitin Gadkari to sue Meta's Facebook & Instagram, X, Google over deepfakes on E20
Gadkari has stated that this campaign against him is fabricated and malicious, intended to mislead the public and damage his reputation.
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Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has been cleared to pursue a civil suit against several social media platforms and other parties over what he alleges are misleading claims linking him and his family to financial gains from the government's E20 initiative.
The Bombay High Court, on Monday, July 27, permitted Gadkari to proceed with the suit against Meta's Facebook and Instagram, X, Google, and various unidentified accounts or pages allegedly responsible for spreading the claims, which he has described as defamatory.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have also been named as respondents in the matter. The court's order comes in response to a petition filed by Gadkari, in which he stated that content circulating on social media, including posts, manipulated images, and deepfake videos, falsely suggests that he and his family profit from the Centre's E20 ethanol-blended petrol scheme.
Gadkari has stated that this campaign against him is fabricated and malicious, intended to mislead the public and damage his reputation. In his petition, he pointed out that the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme, of which E20 is a part, comes under the purview of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, not his own ministry, rendering the claims against him factually baseless.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has approached Bombay High Court against-social media posts linking him, and his family to E20 related business gains.
— ANI (@ANI) July 27, 2026
According to Nitin Gadkari's lawsuit in Bombay HC, the disputed content on social media include posts and deepfake pictures and… pic.twitter.com/pYBUF8gEYz
He further maintained that he has played no part in shaping, executing, or overseeing the E20 policy, and that the allegations linking him to it are therefore unfounded. Among his demands, Gadkari is seeking the immediate takedown of AI-generated deepfake videos, doctored clips, and other posts that he says wrongly connect him and his family to the E20 programme.
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He has also requested action against those responsible for producing, publishing, and spreading the content in question online, along with a restraint on any further circulation of such material. While the Bombay High Court has allowed Gadkari to move forward with the civil suit, his request for interim relief will be taken up at a later stage in the proceedings.
The Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme is among India's major energy initiatives, designed to strengthen energy security, support farmers, and reduce environmental impact by boosting the use of domestically produced renewable fuel.