The Delhi High Court on Friday granted police protection to a woman who has alleged that Cockroach Janta Party leaders Saurav Das, Abhijit Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka and Ratna Singh posted and circulated an alleged deepfake picture of her alongside PM Narendra Modi on social media pursuant to which she allegedly received threats.

Justice Girish Kathpalia in his order while issuing notice to Das, Dipke, Ranka and Singh dictated:

"Then comes the issue of providing protection to the petitioner. In the petition, the petitioner not disclosed her present address. That is a correct decision taken by her. However, in order to ensure that she is provided complete police protection, it is directed that today itself she will disclose her exact residence address to IO present in Court. And IO shall forthwith transmit address to SHO of the area in which petitioner resides. IO shall also transmit a copy of this order to the said SHO who is directed to ensure complete police protection to petitioner in all possible and practical manner".

The court also issued notice to Meta Platforms and directed the platform to immediately remove within 24 hours the access to the "objectionable content" from the social media managed by it.

The court further said that the petitioner has a right to claim compensation from organizers of the demonstration and made it clear that filing of the petition shall not preclude the petitioner from claiming any other relief to which she is entitled in law.

The petitioner's counsel submitted that without her consent, some unknown persons morphed her photographs in highly obscene and objectionable manner and created images depicting her by side of PM of India.

It was argued that those photos according to her were displayed widely along with obscene and derogatory slogans in the recently organized illegal demonstration of Cockroach Janta Party. The demonstration was organized by the present respondents no. 2 to 5 and were uploaded by respondent no. 6-Meta Platforms on social media platforms against her consent, the counsel said.

The petitioner argued that the although some of the reliefs sought ought to have been sought by filing a civil writ petition instead of criminal writ petition but in view of intertwined nature of the factual matrix, coupled with the utmost urgency to ensure modesty and dignity of petitioner, those reliefs also maybe granted by the court.

It was argued that the writ jurisdiction as contemplated by Article 226 makes no distinction between civil writ and criminal writ.

"Prima facie I find force in this argument of learned counsel for Petitioner. Learned ASC on behalf of Delhi Police accepts notice and submits that since FIR was registered yesterday itself, the action shall be taken expeditiously as possible," the court said.

The court directed the police to file a status report within one week detailing the exact action taken. The court also directed the Registry to redact all the impugned web links from the petition and the annexures. The court however directed that the petitioner shall hand over to the investigating agency the concerned pictures and videos in electronic form along with web links.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Umesh Sharma said that her photos have been morphed and uploaded on internet and the Police has done nothing despite FIR.

"They should first take down entire content. And I am receiving threats," Sharma said. Meanwhile the court orally said that the issue of takedown of content has to go to the bench presiding over civil jurisdiction, adding that for now the court can grant police protection.

"This relief as I said should have gone to civil bench. But Looking into sensitivity, we should not make the lady run from one place to another.I will make it clear that they shall not disclose her address in petition. That they shall tell address to the SHO who shall ensure that lady gets protection," the court added.

The court said that in the copy supplied to it the name of the petitioner had been redacted. Meanwhile Sharma urged that Delhi Police has already in house quick reaction team in such matters and that they should have taken suo-motu cognizance of it.

Referring to the impugned images, Sharma said that the photos are explicit and it should go into the public domain.

Meanwhile the court orally said, "It is not just her face. Of course she is victim. Other face should have also been...In such matters I would not have entertained because you have alternative remedies available but it is not just a matter of the lady but also about the Prime Minister of the country. If they are not sensitive, I will ensure they become sensitive. And I believe action will be taken".

The plea has been filed by the woman alleging that the CJP leaders ran a vicious, coordinated cyber-assault, public character assassination using deepfake technology.

The woman has alleged that the CJP leaders have unauthorizedly harvested her personal photograph and used AI face-swapping tools to morph her face onto a “highly vulgar and compromising image” alongside the Prime Minister of India.

“The perpetrators printed physical banners of this morphed picture, paraded them in massive crowds, raised sexually suggestive and derogatory slogans, and maliciously uploaded videos onto Instagram and other social media platforms,” the plea says.

It adds: “They further sank to absolute depravity by uploading and distributing the Petitioner's morphed non-consensual explicit Photos onto various pornographic websites.”

It is her case that despite registration of FIR, the local cyber authorities have failed to issue statutory takedown directives, leaving the deepfake content viral across the internet.

She has claimed that the content online is subjecting her to continuous, life-threatening intimidation, rape threats, and severe mental trauma.

The plea seeks directions on the police to provide protection to the woman. She has also sought a direction that the authorities immediately trace, block, and purge the morphed explicit photos and deepfake content not only from social media but from all pornographic websites, where her image has been illegally uploaded.

Title: X v. State NCT of Delhi & Ors