The Delhi High Court on Tuesday stepped in to protect the personality rights of former Indian cricketer and renowned commentator Sunil Gavaskar, restraining multiple websites and online platforms from using his name, images, or persona for commercial purposes without his consent.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora passed interim directions barring the unauthorised exploitation of Gavaskar’s identity, including the use of his personality traits through artificial intelligence tools and deepfake technology. The court also ordered the immediate removal of certain obscene content circulating online that misused Gavaskar’s name or likeness.
Directing swift compliance, the High Court said that the specific URLs hosting the offensive material must be taken down by the concerned websites within 72 hours. It further clarified that if the platforms hosting such content fail to act within this period, the responsibility would shift to the relevant social media intermediaries to ensure removal.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on May 22.
During the proceedings, the court was informed that while some objectionable content had been removed following earlier directions, several links were still accessible on the internet. This prompted the court to pass stricter interim measures.
Earlier, on December 12, the High Court had directed social media intermediaries to act within seven days on Gavaskar’s plea seeking protection of his personality rights. At that stage, the court had asked Gavaskar’s counsel to first approach the intermediaries with his grievances and had instructed the platforms to treat the suit as a formal complaint under the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
Gavaskar had approached the High Court seeking to restrain social media platforms and e-commerce websites from the unauthorised use of his name, image, persona, and likeness, arguing that such misuse violated his personality and publicity rights.
Personality rights, also referred to as the right to publicity, allow an individual to control, protect, and commercially benefit from the use of their name, image, voice, or likeness.
The case is part of a growing trend of public figures approaching the Delhi High Court for protection against digital misuse of their identities. In recent months, the court has granted interim relief to several prominent personalities, including actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn, and R Madhavan, filmmaker Karan Johar, singer Kumar Sanu, Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, and podcaster Raj Shamani.
Bollywood actor Salman Khan, Telugu actor NTR Rao Junior, and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan have also moved the Delhi High Court seeking similar protection of their personality rights.
