P.C. :-

1) The present Leave Petition is filed to grant leave under Clause XII of the Letters Patent, 1865.

2) Mr. Dwarkadas, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is the Chairperson of USV Private Limited (“USV”), a multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company. The petitioner is widely recognized for the social and philanthropic endeavours.

3) It is further submitted that the respondent no.1 is the unknown person who is the owner operator and/or administrator of the Impugned Pages/Accounts on Facebook (www.facebook.com). The respondent no.1 is engaged in illegal and fraudulent activities, inter alia, by impersonating the petitioner and misappropriating the petitioner’s name, image, personal and professional information and likeness in the manner more particularly setout below.

4) The respondent no.2 i.e. Meta Platforms Inc. is the owner and operator of popular media platforms called Instagram (www.instagram.com) and Facebook (www.facebook.com). The media platforms of respondents have glolab outreach.

5) The petitioner is inter alia seeking a mandatory injunction directing the respondent nos. 1 and 2, respectively, to permanently disable, remove and/or otherwise take down the fraudulent, impersonator and unauthorized Facebook pages/accounts described below and remove all content hosted thereon and also to issue appropriate directions to respondent no. 3 to exercise its statutory powers to issue take down orders/blocking orders to block public access to the Impugned Pages/Accounts (defined hereinbelow).

6) On or about 1 September 2026, the petitioner first discovered that respondent no. 1 had created and was operating multiple fake, fraudulent and unauthorized pages accounts on the social media platform Facebook, owned and operated by respondent no. 2, by falsely assuming the petitioner's identity and impersonating the petitioner. The Impugned Pages/Accounts purport to represent or are calculated to create the false impression that they are associated with or operated by, the petitioner, without the petitioner's knowledge, consent or authorization. By creating and operating the Impugned Pages/Accounts in the petitioner's name, respondent no. 1 has sought to misappropriate the petitioner's identity and create a false association with the petitioner, thereby exposing members of the public to the risk of being misled as to the authenticity, ownership and purpose of the said pages/accounts. The perpetrators of the Impugned Pages/Accounts have already started to mislead the public who visit those Pages/Accounts and lure them into sending money to those perpetrators on the false assurance of monetary benefits on the pretext that it is the petitioner who is communicating with such people.

7) On 17 September, 2026, the petitioner, through her advocates, addressed a legal notice ("First Legal Notice") to respondent no. 2 and to Facebook India Online Services Private Limited and called upon respondent no. 2 to remove the Four Impugned Accounts within three days from receipt of the notice. On 17 September, 2026, the petitioner discovered a further impersonating account on Facebook in the name "Leena Tiwary", being the page/account. On entire issue, lodged a complaint with the Govandi Police Station, Mumbai in respect of all five Impugned Pages/Accounts. First Information Report No. 06 2026 ("FIR") was registered at the Govandi Police Station.

10) It is further submitted that the material part of cause of action has arisen in Mumbai, and within the jurisdiction of this Hon’ble Court in as much as the petitioner resides and predominantly operates her business from Mumbai. The petitioner first discovered the Impugned Pages/Accounts in Mumbai. The Impugned Pages/Accounts and the infringing content appearing thereon can be viewed by members of the public in Mumbai. The petitioner’s goodwill and reputation are situated and subsist, inter alia, in Mumbai which is within the jurisdiction of this Hon'bl