Patna, 17 Sept

The Patna High Court on Wednesday directed the Congress to take off from its social media handles an AI-generated video depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his late mother.

Acting Chief Justice PB Bajanthri passed the order on a petition filed by advocate Vivekanand Singh and others, who had called the video a "defamatory publication" and violative of restraints placed on political parties under the Representation of the People Act.

Additional Solicitor General of India KN Singh, who appeared for the Union government, told PTI, "The court has made it clear that the video shall remain withdrawn till the next date of hearing".

In the petition, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Union government and the Election Commission were also named as respondents.

EC's counsel Siddharth Prasad said, “The court has also issued notices to Facebook, Twitter and Google, directing them to file their reply by the next date of hearing".

The high court is likely to mention the next date in the order sheet, which would be uploaded on its website.

Seeking to target the prime minister, the Bihar Congress had last week posted the video on its X handle, with a prompt in Hindi, "Sahab ke sapno mein aayi maa. Dekhiye rochak samvaad. (Mother came in Sabah's dream. Watch an interesting interaction between them.)

The video portrayed Modi's mother criticising him for his politics.

The BJP and its allies had lashed out at the Congress over the video, while protests erupted across the country.

The Congress maintained that no disrespect was shown to the PM or his mother.

"What is their objection? Just because a mother is trying to educate her son to do something right. Where is it disrespectful, neither to the mother, whom we respect dearly, nor to the son," Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera had said.