Timeline of AI law in India

ITAT dismisses the appeal

The "A" Bench at Bengaluru dismisses ITA No. 1051/Bang/2024 in an order citing fifteen authorities, several later reported as fabricated or mis-cited.

SEBI Board meeting

The Board considers a memorandum to insert AI-responsibility regulations in the Intermediaries, SECC and DP Regulations.

Minister open to AI legislation

Ashwini Vaishnaw tells the Lok Sabha that the government is open to new AI law if there is broad consensus.

Punjab and Haryana High Court asks ChatGPT about DGPS

Justice Deepak Gupta uses ChatGPT's description of differential GPS accuracy in a land-demarcation revision petition.

Committee announced

The RBI's Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies announces the FREE-AI Committee.

Pillar allocation disclosed

MeitY states the Datasets Platform outlay of Rs 199.55 crore.

Suit decreed

Justice Amit Bansal decrees the suit under Order VIII Rule 10 CPC and grants a permanent injunction.

Pillar-wise breakdown disclosed

In a Lok Sabha reply MeitY gives the allocation for each pillar, with compute at Rs 4,563.36 crore.

Bidding opens

Nineteen bidders, including Jio Platforms, Tata Communications and Yotta, submit proposals.

Plaintiffs discover the deepfakes

Per the plaint, the plaintiffs first learn of the infringing websites and accounts.

Ex parte interim order

The Delhi High Court restrains misuse of his persona through AI and deepfakes and directs Meta and Google to take down content and disclose details.

Defendant 2 proceeded against ex parte

The Joint Registrar closes defendant 2's right to file a written statement.

Merit found; committee process directed

The Division Bench finds merit in the petitions, orders nominees within a week, a study of foreign regimes such as the EU, stakeholder hearings, and a report preferably within three months.

Committee on Deepfakes constituted

MeitY issues an office memorandum forming the committee.

Deepfakes committee constituted

MeitY constitutes a committee on deepfakes by office memorandum; the Delhi High Court records this on 21 November.

Suit listed; issues framed; amici appointed

Justice Amit Bansal issues summons in CS(COMM) 1028/2024, frames four issues for the interim stage and appoints Adarsh Ramanujan and Prof. Arul George Scaria as amici curiae.

AI chatbot operator settles

The suit is settled as against Defendant 13, the operator of the AI chatbot platform.

Decree against Defendant 11

Justice Amit Bansal decrees the suit against Defendant 11. The anilkapoor.com domain is recorded as locked.

Consultation on responsibility for AI tools

SEBI proposes amendments making regulated entities solely responsible for the AI tools they use.

Karnataka centre

Karnataka approves Rs 28 crore for a Centre of Excellence in AI in Bengaluru.

Justice Singh on AI and adjudication

Speaking at an IBA litigation and ADR symposium, Justice Singh is reported as saying AI can be a tool for the justice system but adjudication cannot be outsourced.

Shrijan at IIT Jodhpur

IndiaAI and Meta announce a Center for Generative AI at IIT Jodhpur.

MeitY told to report on steps taken

The court directs the Union to place on record what it is doing about deepfakes.

Centres named

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan names IIT Ropar, IIT Kanpur and AIIMS with IIT Delhi as hosts, with a Rs 990 crore budget.

Affidavit of service filed

The plaintiff files proof that defendant 2 was served through WhatsApp and Telegram.

Platform announced

NeGD announces an open platform for hosting datasets, modelled on Hugging Face, to launch by January 2025.

Safety Institute consultation

MeitY consults industry, academia and civil society on an AI Safety Institute under the Safe and Trusted AI pillar.

MeitY consultation

MeitY consults industry, academia and civil society on setting up an AI Safety Institute, described as a standards hub that will not regulate.

MeitY roundtable on AI safety

MeitY consults stakeholders on 'Ensuring AI Safety: Building a Safe and Trusted AI Ecosystem in India'.

ANI offers OpenAI a licence

ANI offers OpenAI a licence to its digital content for USD 7.5 million. The court later relied on this offer to hold that ANI's loss could be compensated in money.

Eligibility relaxed

Turnover thresholds are reported cut to Rs 50 crore (primary bidders) and Rs 25 crore (other consortium members) after startup feedback.

Scheme launch (repository date)

The Pacta repository records the NABCB AIMS accreditation scheme as launched in October 2024; the NABCB site pages reviewed do not confirm this.

BharatGen launched

The Ministry of Science and Technology inaugurates BharatGen, an IIT Bombay-led project for multilingual and multimodal foundation models.

AI-Powered Telangana strategy launched

The AI strategy and implementation roadmap for 2024-2027 is released at the Global AI Summit (5-6 September) in Hyderabad.

Hearing not reached

The board cannot be taken up for want of time. The matter is stood over to 27 September 2024 and earlier ad-interim relief continues.

Data Management Offices

MeitY says Data Management Offices are being set up, with a Data Management Unit in each department.

ONDC Saarthi

ONDC launches Saarthi, a reference app for building multilingual buyer apps with BHASHINI.

Court says deepfakes need regulation

A hearing is reported with the court saying there is a pressing need to control and regulate the spread of deepfakes and that deepfake-generating platforms may not be intermediaries.

NCLT admits Section 7 application

The NCLT, Mumbai admits the application against Essel Infraprojects Ltd. as corporate guarantor, appoints an interim resolution professional and declares a moratorium; its reasoning cites six Supreme Court decisions.

Tripura High Court puts a query to ChatGPT

In Subhash Chakraborty v. Sandhya Deb (RFA 13/2024), Justice Biswajit Palit records a ChatGPT query and answer on damages in an injunction suit.

Academic commentary

SpicyIP publishes a two-part analysis describing the order as potentially the first to address AI voice cloning directly, and listing open questions.

Credit model risk draft

The RBI issues draft 'Regulatory Principles for Management of Model Risks in Credit'.

Request for empanelment issued

MeitY invites AI compute and cloud service providers; about 50 entities attend the pre-bid meeting.

Compute empanelment call

The Mission issues a request for empanelment of AI compute and cloud service providers.

Order reported

Bar & Bench reports that the court found conversion of any voice into a celebrity's without permission to be a violation of the celebrity's personality rights.

Ex parte ad-interim injunction

Justice R. I. Chagla restrains 27 defendants from imitating the plaintiff's persona through AI voice models, deepfakes, face morphing and GIFs, locks two domains and orders takedown and disclosure.

Microsoft Technology Licensing v. Assistant Controller

The Madras High Court discusses the meaning of "algorithm" and "per se" under Section 3(k).

Results declared

Counting concludes the 2024 general election.

Snapdeal MoU and research call

Snapdeal signs an MoU with BHASHINI; MeitY seeks research proposals to improve machine translation.

SpicyIP analysis

Commentary welcomes the order's attention to creators' livelihoods and contrasts it with Anil Kapoor.

Ex parte interim injunction

Justice Sanjeev Narula restrains merchandise sellers, distorted-video creators, a wallpaper provider and an unlicensed AI chatbot, orders URL blocking, and declines relief against a YouTube 'Thug Life' video.

Suit filed and first listed

Jackie Shroff sues merchandise sellers, video creators, GIF and wallpaper platforms, an AI chatbot operator and unknown persons in the Delhi High Court.

IFF letter to ECI

The Internet Freedom Foundation criticises vague terms, the three-hour deadline, reliance on the GAC and the late timing.

Rajat Sharma PIL: notice to Centre

Journalist Rajat Sharma's PIL seeks blocking of deepfake apps and platforms and a nodal officer; the court issues notice (W.P.(C) 6560/2024).

ECI orders X takedown

The ECI directs X to remove an animated video posted by the BJP's Karnataka unit, invoking Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act.

Deepfake guidelines

The ECI directs parties to avoid deepfakes and remove them within three hours during the Lok Sabha election.

Advisory issued

ECI letter No. 491/SM_SOP/2024/Communication directs parties to avoid deepfakes and take them down within three hours.

Election-period deepfake PIL disposed of

The Delhi High Court disposes of a PIL on AI-generated political content during the Lok Sabha elections, trusting the Election Commission to act, as reported by MediaNama.

Delhi High Court disposes of Lawyers Voice PIL

The court directs the ECI to decide the petitioner's representation on deepfakes by 6 May 2024, declining to issue directions mid-election.

BJP complaint on deepfakes reported

A BJP delegation led by IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw asks the ECI to act against election deepfakes after an edited video of Amit Shah circulates.

Decree against several defendants

Justice Sanjeev Narula decrees the suit against Defendants 2, 4–10, 12 and 13 and confirms the interim injunction.

Delhi High Court records Phase III scanner procurement

In Karan S Thukral v. District & Sessions Judge the High Court records that 724 scanners were procured under e-Courts Phase III.

Polling begins

First of seven polling phases of the general election.

Civil society letter reported

Article 21 Trust, ADR, IFF, LibTech India and Maadhyam urge the ECI to adopt binding safeguards against deceptive AI and a code for digital platforms.

First fabricated video posted

Defendant 1 posts a news-style video showing Dr Shetty promoting a diabetes drug; a second video follows on 12 April 2024.

RFP for the AI market study

The CCI invites proposals for a market study on AI and competition, with a 3 June 2024 deadline.

PCIT revises the assessment

The PCIT-2, Bengaluru, passes a Section 263 order holding the assessment erroneous and prejudicial to the revenue, after a notice of 13 March 2024.

Election schedule announced

The ECI announces the 2024 Lok Sabha schedule; the Model Code of Conduct comes into force.

MARVEL administrative approval

A Government Resolution grants administrative approval for MARVEL, wholly owned by the state.

Revised advisory

MeitY drops the permission requirement while keeping labelling, consent pop-ups and deepfake-identifier duties.

IndiaAI Mission approved

The Cabinet approves the IndiaAI Mission, which includes skilling and AI education components.

Cabinet approval

The Union Cabinet approves the IndiaAI Mission with an outlay of Rs 10,371.92 crore over five years.

Minister clarifies

Chandrasekhar says the advisory targets significant platforms and untested models and will not apply to start-ups.

AI advisory issued

MeitY advises that under-tested AI models need explicit government permission, with labelling, consent pop-ups and deepfake metadata.

AI-model advisory

MeitY extends the advisory approach to AI models (replaced on 15 March 2024).

IndiaAI Mission approved

The Union Cabinet approves the mission with an outlay of Rs. 10,371.92 crore over five years.

MARVEL approved in principle

The Home Department approves the special purpose vehicle to introduce AI in law enforcement.

Rajya Sabha reply on AI-generated works

A ministerial reply says the existing Copyright and Patent Acts are well equipped to protect AI-generated works; Thaler later relies on it.

Ex parte ad interim injunction

Justice Sanjeev Narula restrains misuse of the plaintiff's identity, directs Telegram and Meta to remove accounts and groups, and directs MeitY and DoT to have numbers and domains blocked.

Gemini controversy

Chandrasekhar alleges that Google Gemini violated the IT Rules over its answers about Prime Minister Modi.

Notices sent to platforms and defendants

Notices go to WhatsApp, Meta and the defendants with limited results, per the December 2024 judgment.

UiPath partnership

UiPath partners with BHASHINI for Indic-language translation in its automation platform.