A lawyers’ organisation, which had approached the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (EC) on the use of deepfake videos in election campaigns, was asked to approach the poll panel directly.
A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P.S. Arora on Thursday disposed of the petition, saying it cannot devise a policy in the middle of elections.
The court also asked the EC to take a call on the representation by the petitioner by May 6, keeping in mind the urgency of the issue.
The petitioner had sought directions to be issued to EC to formulate and implement necessary guidelines to address “the public harm and democratic crisis” caused by the pervasive use of deepfake technologies in poll drives.
During the hearing, the EC counsel said the deepfake videos highlighted by the petitioner — of Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, actors Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh — had been taken down, criminal complaints had been filed, and accounts from which the videos were posted had been disabled.
To this, the Bench said that accounts repeatedly posting fake videos must be blocked and their names should also be put in the public domain.
“We can’t devise a policy today in the midst of elections. Once it is entrusted to the EC, the court’s interdiction at this stage will not be proper. At this moment, courts will not give any direction. You’ll have to live with it. All of this is to be done before the elections. At the 11th hour, courts cannot interfere,” the Bench said.
