The Supreme Court has put a hold on proceedings before the Gujarat High Court in a public interest litigation seeking a regulatory framework to tackle the growing misuse of artificial intelligence in creating and circulating deepfake content.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana also issued notice on the Union government’s plea seeking to move the Gujarat proceedings to the Supreme Court.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the Centre.
The government’s case was that similar proceedings concerning AI-generated deepfakes had already been stopped in other High Courts and were now before the Supreme Court. The Centre therefore sought for the Gujarat matter to be dealt with alongside those cases.
The Supreme Court has made the transfer petition returnable on October 5. Until then, the proceedings before the Gujarat High Court will remain stayed.
The Gujarat PIL was filed by Vikas Vijay Nair, who has sought stronger safeguards against the misuse of AI, particularly the creation and dissemination of manipulated videos and images involving constitutional and statutory authorities.
The matter had earlier prompted the Gujarat High Court to seek responses from major online platforms, including Meta India, Google, X, Reddit and Scribd.
The dispute is part of a wider legal reckoning over AI-generated content. Similar proceedings involving deepfakes and artificial intelligence are pending before the Karnataka and Bombay High Courts, with petitions involving entities and individuals including X Corp, DigiPub News Foundation, Kunal Kamra and senior advocate Haresh Jagtiani.
With the Gujarat proceedings now paused, the Supreme Court is set to consider whether these overlapping challenges should be brought together and examined at the national level.
