Supreme Court halts Gujarat high court hearing on deepfake regulation petition

The Supreme Court has placed the Gujarat High Court proceedings on hold in a public interest litigation that seeks a regulatory regime for AI-generated deepfake content. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant, joined by Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, issued a notice on the Union government's plea to shift the case to the apex court and set a return date of October 5. The court also directed that the Gujarat High Court case remain in abeyance until a final decision is made.

The petition, lodged by Vikas Vijay Nair, urges a sweeping mechanism to prevent the creation and spread of deepfakes, particularly those involving constitutional and statutory authorities. In April, the Gujarat High Court had summoned major online platforms—including Meta India, Google, X, Reddit and Scribd—for responses to the petition. Parallel petitions concerning AI-generated fake media are also before the Karnataka and Bombay high courts, involving parties such as X Corp, DigiPub News Foundation, comedian Kunal Kamra and senior advocate Haresh Jagtiani.