Bombay High Court Allows USV Chairperson Leena Gandhi Tewari To Sue Over Fake Facebook Accounts

The suit names Meta Platforms and seeks action against the accounts, with Tewari alleging that they misuse her identity, photographs and professional information without her consent.

Justice Rajesh S. Patil, by an order dated October 23, granted Tewari leave under Clause XII of the Letters Patent to institute the suit before the Bombay High Court.

Tewari's petition states that she first discovered multiple allegedly fake and unauthorised Facebook pages on September 1, 2026.

According to the submissions, the accounts falsely suggested that they were associated with or operated by her, creating a risk that members of the public would be misled about their authenticity.

She further alleges that the operators had begun luring people into sending money by promising monetary benefits while falsely presenting themselves as communicating on her behalf.

Tewari is the chairperson of USV Private Limited, a multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company.

She also lodged a complaint at Mumbai's Govandi Police Station concerning all five accounts. An FIR was registered in connection with the complaint, the order records.

The proposed suit seeks a mandatory injunction directing the account operator and Meta to permanently disable or remove the allegedly fraudulent pages and their content.

To establish the jurisdiction, Tewari's counsel submitted that she resides and predominantly conducts her business from Mumbai, discovered the accounts there, and suffers harm to her reputation and goodwill within the city.

After hearing counsel and examining the leave petition, Justice Patil held that a case had been made out to grant permission to institute the suit.

The petition was accordingly allowed.

For Leena Gandhi Tewari: Advocate Kunal Dwarkadas a/w. Aniket Kharote, Rahul Dwarkadas, Neveille Mukerji and Raushan Kumar i/b. RJD & Partners