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Delhi hosted the 2025 All India Judges Badminton Championship.
Fake claims and social media posts alleging that Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, numerous other judges, and union ministers traveled to London at public cost to participate in a badminton tournament were ordered to be removed by the Delhi High Court on Friday.
Justice Tejas Karia ordered the government to send out notifications mandating that the "false, malicious, and derogatory" content be removed, disabled, and de-indexed within a day by social media companies, search engines, digital publishers, and other intermediaries.Additionally, the Court ordered that members of the public not upload, publish, circulate, share, or otherwise disseminate the contested content on any social media platform, search engine, web-hosting platform, digital media platform, or other online media or platform.
Reports from news outlets like The Print, National Herald, and The Tribune are among the content that will be deleted. The link to be deleted also includes a tweet from Priyanka Chaturvedi, the leader of the Shiv Sena (UBT).
Because it "indicates a systematic misinformation campaign intended to malign the reputation of the Hon'ble Chief Justice of India and Hon'ble Judges of the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts," Justice Karia noted that the content could erode public trust in the legal system.The contested content appears to be based on demonstrably false factual claims, such as the distribution of photos unrelated to the event and the attribution of participation to people who, according to the material submitted to this court, were not present at the event. It goes beyond simple criticism, commentary, or fair reporting. The public's trust in the justice system could be seriously and irreversibly harmed by the spread of such incorrect and misleading material, especially when it is aimed against Constitutional Courts, the Court decided.
The court has set July 17 as the deadline for compliance.
Tejas Karia, Justice
The Badminton Association of India (BAI) filed a lawsuit asking for the removal of posts and fake news alleging that several dozen judges attended the government-sponsored 2nd International Bar and Bench Badminton Championship, which took place in London on June 7. The court issued the order.
Notably, it was recently reported in widely shared social media posts that over 75 Indian judges, Union ministers, and CJI Kant traveled to London to compete in a badminton event at taxpayer expense.
However, a number of significant accusations were denied by the government's fact-checking division. Claims that Rijiju and Meghwal attended the event in London were untrue, according to PIB Fact Check, and the widely shared images were from a badminton competition that took place in November 2025 in Thyagaraj Stadium in New Delhi rather than London.
Speaking on behalf of the BAI, Senior Advocate Apoorv Kurup claimed that although the event was planned to foster good sportsmanship and unity among the legal community, it was later the target of a disinformation effort.
Speaking on behalf of the Union government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that images that were making the rounds online were from a national Bar and Bench
badminton tournament that took place at Delhi's Thyagaraj Stadium in November 2025 rather than the London event.
He added that the ministers mentioned in the papers had not traveled to the UK during the pertinent period and that the Chief Justice of India had not taken part in any badminton competitions in London.
The Court came to the conclusion that the information seemed to be a part of a systematic disinformation campaign against the judiciary after reviewing the case.
As a result, it instructed authorities to take appropriate legal action in compliance with the law and to protect the subscriber and account information of individuals who uploaded the content.
The Badminton Association of India was represented by senior counsel Apoorv Kurup, as well as advocates Rajat Nair, Dhruv Pande, and Gurjas Narula.
Ashish Dixit, the Central Government Standing Counsel (CGSC), and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta represented the central government.
