The Delhi High Court has granted interim relief to BJP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on July 1, 2026, by directing the removal of certain social media content. Chadha had approached the High Court seeking directions to remove content that he claimed falsely portrayed him as having changed his political allegiance for monetary gain, contending that the posts were defamatory and caused serious harm to his reputation.
Accepting his grievance to the extent of the impugned defamatory material, the Court directed that certain content be taken down, according to ANI.
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According to Justice Subramonium Prasad, there was not yet a personality rights infringement in the case. Nonetheless, the judge ordered the deletion of five posts that it determined to be prima facie defamatory.
"Personality rights are not at issue. But I have simply ordered the removal of five documents. When issuing its ruling, Justice Prasad stated, "Rest is not defamatory prima facie."
In his plea, Chadha said that a concerted effort using deepfakes, edited films, and malicious AI-generated content was started to damage his reputation after he was dismissed as the AAP's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha and later joined the BJP. He asked for the objectionable content to be removed and his personality rights to be protected, reported The Hindu.
The Court had voiced doubts over the sustainability of the personality rights claim during a prior hearing, noting that the disagreement seemed to center on criticism of a political leader's choices rather than the unlawful commercial exploitation of his identity.
Justice Prasad had said, "The first impression... Prima facie, there is no personality right violation," and that "a decision taken by you in the political arena is being criticised."
Several other AAP Rajya Sabha MPs, including Raghav Chadha, formally joined the BJP, prompting viral memes and fake content to increase as a result of the action, which caused a large online backlash and widespread criticism from former supporters.
Chadha defended the action, saying he thought he was "the right man in the wrong party" and that the AAP had deviated from its initial principles.
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