Badminton Association of India moves Delhi High Court against viral fake news on Supreme Court judges, union ministers at London badminton tournament

THE BADMINTON ASSOCIATION OF INDIA (‘BAI’) approached the Delhi High Court today seeking urgent action against the circulation of, what it termed as ‘false and misleading content’ on social media platforms and digital news portals, which claimed that around seventy-five judges of the Supreme Court and various High Courts, along with Union ministers including the Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, had travelled to London to participate in a badminton tournament at the taxpayers’ expense.

The matter was mentioned before Justice Tejas Karia by Senior Advocate Apoorv Kurup, counsel for the petitioner, BAI, who sought urgent listing on the ground that the fake content was spreading virally and causing reputational harm to the judiciary as well as to the sport of badminton itself. During the hearings, Justice Karia mulled over the power of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to issue directions against intermediaries to disclose basic subscriber information regarding those who had spread the news. 

The petition seeks the takedown of certain YouTube videos, online news portal reports, and posts on X. It also seeks directions to identify the originators of the allegedly false content, initiate proceedings against them, and permanently remove such material from digital platforms. The BAI has also sought guidelines to ensure prompt action against misinformation concerning the judiciary.

Background

The Second International Bar and Bench Badminton Championship was held at Dormer’s Wells Leisure Centre in Southall, United Kingdom, and was attended by senior advocates and as reported by certain media platforms, by judges of the Supreme Court of India and various High Courts. The event was hosted by Solicitor Advocate Harjot Singh, Director of Twinwood Law Practice, London, and former international badminton player Abantika Deka, and was organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Questions soon emerged about the appropriateness of judges attending a privately organised, corporate-sponsored event. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, who was in London at the time on an official visit, primarily, for the International Conference on Arbitrating Indo-U.K. Commercial Disputes and who also met the Chief Justice of England and Wales, distanced himself from the tournament. On June 12, his Personal Secretary issued an explicit clarification that he did not attend the sporting event.

The Ministry of Law and Justice in a statement released on X noted that the claim was “factually incorrect and misleading,” and that Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal had not travelled to London at all, and was instead in Bikaner, Rajasthan on June 7.