Delhi High Court closes TV Today's deepfake misuse petition

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday closed the petition filed by TV Today, the parent company of Aaj Tak and India Today, concerning the potential misuse of deepfake technology, as per a Live Law report. 

A division bench, consisting of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, directed TV Today to submit its suggestions to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy) Committee that is currently reviewing the matter of deepfakes.

The matter is already being reviewed by the Committee and is also under the Court’s scrutiny in a group of pending petitions scheduled for hearing on July 23, as per the Court.

“…. We direct that if the petitioner has any suggestions to give, the same may be forwarded to the Committee within 10 days from today,” the Court said.

The Court further stated that TV Today's suggestions will be duly taken into account by the Committee during the formulation of the policy on deepfake regulation.

“In order to avoid multiplicity of litigation on the same issue, we have disposed of the petition with directions. However, we grant liberty to the petitioner to seek impleadment in the pending petitions, if any such need arises,” the Court said.

TV Today requested that the Union Government be directed to establish a structure, either under the IT Act or through other means, to curb the misuse of deepfakes and to include provisions for penal action.

In November last year, the Delhi High Court, after being informed that the government had established a dedicated committee to address deepfake concerns, acknowledged that delays in detecting such content were causing significant public distress. 

The court directed the committee to consider the suggestions put forth by TV Today in its plea.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) submitted a status report on March 24, indicating that the committee had convened twice to discuss the matter.

The court then noted the Centre’s position that further deliberations by the committee were necessary to develop comprehensive safeguards against the misuse of deepfake technology.

TV Today was represented by advocates Asheesh Jain and Shahrukh Ejaz.