The Delhi High Court has directed the Union Government to issue immediate takedown notifications to all social media intermediaries, search engines, and internet service providers to block, remove, and de-index content alleging that the Chief Justice of India, sitting constitutional judges, and Union Ministers attended a corporate-sponsored badminton retreat in London.

The Court held that the impugned publications were founded on demonstrably incorrect factual assertions and out-of-context photographs from a domestic event, constituting an ex-facie malicious campaign rather than fair comment or criticism.

The Court ordered digital platforms to comply within twenty-four hours and commanded them to preserve and surrender vital digital footprints—including internet protocol logs, contact details, and banking records of the anonymous uploaders—to facilitate immediate statutory investigation and legal action by the Ministry of Information Technology.

Yesterday, the Court heard a writ petition filed by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) against the rampant, algorithmic dissemination of fake news claiming that Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and a contingent of 75 constitutional court judges embarked on a corporate-sponsored badminton retreat to London.

The vacation bench comprising Justice Tejas Karia directed, "Accordingly, the Respondents are directed to forthwith issue an appropriate Notification under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Rules framed thereunder or any other applicable law, in terms of the present Order, directing all concerned intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, significant social media intermediaries, search engines, web-hosting platforms, digital media platforms, internet service providers and other online service providers, to take down, remove, block, disable, de-index and restrict access to the Impugned Content, including fake and fabricated news, articles, videos and related material featuring or purporting to depict the alleged participation, association or involvement of the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, Hon’ble Judges of the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts, and Hon’ble Union Ministers in the 2nd International Bar & Bench Badminton Championship held in London on 07.06.2026, together with any identical, mirrored, modified, edited, clipped, reproduced, re-uploaded, derivative or substantially similar versions thereof, by specifying the URLs including the URLs contained in Annexure-A to this Order, within 24 hours of receipt of the Notification."


Senior Advocate Apoorv Kurup appeared on behalf of the Petitioner-Association, while Solicitor General of India (SG), Tushar Mehta, appeared for the Union Government.

The Badminton Association of India instituted a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India before the High Court of Delhi, seeking urgent ad-interim directions for the takedown of misleading, factually incorrect, and motivated reportage published across digital, print, and social media platforms.

The petitioner, functioning as the apex national governing body for the sport of badminton in India, moved the constitutional court to restrain an organized misinformation campaign concerning the alleged participation of senior members of the judiciary and the executive in the Second International Bar and Bench Badminton Championship held in London.

The petitioner submitted that the international tournament was a bona fide event organized independently by a former international badminton player to foster camaraderie within the legal fraternity. It was argued that subsequent to the event, certain media outlets, social media handles, and organized groups published and amplified impugned content maliciously calculated to scandalize and lower the dignity of the Chief Justice of India and sitting judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts.

The petitioner contended that viral videos, tweets, and articles falsely alleged that dozens of constitutional judges and union ministers undertook foreign travel at public expense for a lavish leisure trip. Particular objection was raised against a formal statement issued by the All India Lawyers Union, which had characterized the event as an inappropriate collaboration and a violent negation of the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct 2002 without any evidentiary foundation.

The Solicitor General of India, on behalf of the Union of India, accepted notice and placed on record the official findings of the government's fact-checking machinery. It was further stated that the entire narrative was completely false, fabricated, and highly misleading.

It was submitted that photographs peddled online depicting the Chief Justice of India, a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, and Union Ministers playing badminton were entirely out of context, having been captured at a domestic tournament held at the Thyagraj Stadium in New Delhi the previous year.

The Solicitor General clarified that the Union Ministers never visited London during the period, while the Chief Justice of India was in the United Kingdom strictly on official state business to meet the President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and address functions concerning arbitration law and artificial intelligence. It was further placed on record that only two judges from the Allahabad High Court had traveled to London, and they did so strictly in their personal capacity.

The High Court observed that the impugned content was ex-facie false, malicious, and derogatory to the judiciary, the executive, and the sport of badminton. The Court noted that the material indicated a systematic misinformation campaign intended to tarnish the reputation of constitutional authorities and erode public confidence in the justice delivery system.

The Court observed, "The Impugned Content does not merely amount to criticism, comment or fair reportage, but appears to be founded on demonstrably incorrect factual assertions, including the circulation of photographs unrelated to the Event and the attribution of participation to persons who, on the material placed before this Court, were not present at the Event. The dissemination of such false and misleading information, particularly when directed against Constitutional Courts, has the potential to cause serious and irreversible injury to public confidence in the justice delivery system".

The Bench determined that the publications did not amount to fair comment or reportage but were founded on demonstrably incorrect factual assertions, creating a fit case for the issuance of extraordinary and immediate injunctive reliefs.

Finding a strong prima facie case, the High Court directed the Union of India to forthwith issue appropriate notifications under the Information Technology Act and the rules framed thereunder.

The Court ordered all concerned intermediaries, including social media platforms, significant social media intermediaries, search engines, web-hosting platforms, digital media agencies, and internet service providers, to immediately take down, remove, block, and de-index the impugned content, videos, and articles along with any mirrored, modified, or derivative versions thereof within twenty-four hours.

The Court further directed all digital intermediaries to preserve and furnish the Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) and associated digital footprints—including names, contact details, email addresses, internet protocol (IP) logs, and banking details—of the uploaders and account operators responsible for originating the fake news.

"The Respondents shall also issue a Notification in terms of this Order to all uploaders, news portals, bloggers, account holders and other concerned persons, directing them to take down the Impugned Content and restraining them from uploading, publishing, hosting, communicating to the public, circulating, distributing, posting, tweeting, sharing, reproducing, transmitting or otherwise disseminating or making available, directly or indirectly, the Impugned Content or any identical, mirrored, modified, edited, clipped, reproduced, re-uploaded, derivative or substantially similar version thereof on any platform, website, social media account, channel, handle, application or medium whatsoever", the Court directed.

The Union Government was mandated to initiate appropriate legal action against the originators based on the data secured.

Additionally, the Court restrained members of the public, news portals, bloggers, and account holders from uploading or further circulating the impugned material on any medium, and directed the respondents to file a comprehensive compliance status report before the next scheduled date of hearing.

Cause Title: Badminton Association of India v. Union of India & Anr. [W.P.(C)-8284/2026 & CM APPL. 39105/2026]

Appearances:

Petitioner: Senior Advocate Apurv Kurup, Advocate Rajat Nair, Advocate Dhruv Pandey, Advocate Gurjas Narula.

Respondents: Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, Advocate S. Avshreya Pratap Singh Rudy, Advocate Ashish K. Dixit, Advocate Amit Gupta, Advocate Usha Jamnal, Advocate Ankit Khatri, Advocate Nyasa Sharma, Advocate R.V. Prabhat, Advocate Yash Wardhan Sharma, Advocate Shubham Sharma, Advocate Naman, Advocate Shiva Laxmi, Advocate Kamaldeep.

Click here to read/download the Order

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