The Delhi High Court has directed the immediate takedown of fake and misleading online content falsely claiming that the Chief Justice of India, several Supreme Court and High Court judges, and Union Ministers travelled to London to participate in the 2nd International Bar & Bench Badminton Championship, holding that such misinformation has the potential to seriously erode public confidence in the justice delivery system.
Justice Tejas Karia passed the directions while hearing a writ petition filed by the Badminton Association of India, which alleged that several media reports, YouTube videos, social media posts and public statements had falsely portrayed the event as involving the participation of the Chief Justice of India, over 100 sitting judges and Union Ministers, based on misrepresented photographs and factually incorrect assertions.
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Senior Advocate Apurv Kurup, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the championship was a bona fide international sporting event organised to promote sportsmanship and camaraderie within the legal fraternity but had subsequently become the subject of a coordinated misinformation campaign. He contended that fabricated reports and misleading social media posts scandalised the judiciary by falsely suggesting inappropriate associations between judges and the executive and relied upon official clarifications issued by the Press Information Bureau Fact Check Unit and the Ministry of Law and Justice debunking the viral claims.
Appearing for the Union of India, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, assisted by Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, submitted that the photographs circulated on social media were actually taken during a national Bar and Bench Badminton tournament held at Thyagaraj Stadium, New Delhi, in November 2025 and had been falsely portrayed as photographs from London. It was further submitted that the Chief Justice of India had never participated in any badminton tournament in London and had visited the United Kingdom only on an official engagement, while the concerned Union Ministers had not travelled to London during the relevant period. According to the Government, only two judges of the Allahabad High Court had visited London in their personal capacity, making the viral narrative entirely false.
After considering the material on record, the Court held that the impugned content was “ex facie false, malicious and derogatory to the Judiciary, the Executive and the sport of Badminton” and observed that its continued circulation was likely to undermine public confidence in constitutional institutions. It found that the publications were based on demonstrably incorrect factual assertions, including the misuse of old photographs unrelated to the London event and attribution of participation to persons who were not present.
Observing that the material disclosed a systematic misinformation campaign intended to malign the reputation of the Chief Justice of India and sitting judges, the Court directed the Government to issue an appropriate notification under the Information Technology Act, 2000 requiring all intermediaries, including social media platforms, search engines, web-hosting services, digital media platforms and internet service providers, to remove, block, de-index and disable access to the identified content and all identical or substantially similar versions within 24 hours of receiving the notification.
The Court further directed intermediaries to preserve and furnish subscriber information, IP logs, bank details and other identifying particulars of the uploaders to the Government within one week to facilitate appropriate legal action. It also restrained uploaders, publishers, bloggers, account holders and members of the public from uploading, sharing or circulating the impugned content or any modified or reproduced versions on any online platform.
The Union Government has been directed to file a status report on compliance, and the matter has been listed on 17 July 2026.
