Delhi HC to rule on Abhishek Bachchan's plea to protect personality rights

New Delhi [India], September 10 (ANI): In a significant development for digital rights and celebrity protection, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday stated it would pass an order on Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan's plea seeking to safeguard his publicity and personality rights.
The actor has requested the Court to restrain websites and online platforms from misusing his image, likeness, persona, and voice, particularly in fake and sexually explicit content.
Justice Tejas Karia, before whom the petition came up today, said the Court would pass an order on Bachchan's plea.
The judge recorded the note submitted by his legal team regarding the defendant entities against whom relief was sought. "We will pass an order," Justice Karia observed.
The suit alleges that Abhishek Bachchan's personality attributes, instantly associated with him by the public, were being misappropriated without consent for commercial gain. The defendants were accused of creating and circulating content such as deepfakes, manipulated videos, and GIFs based on clips from his films.
The petition also invokes Section 38B of the Copyright Act, 1957, claiming violation of the actor's moral rights in his performances. Bachchan argued that these distorted clips not only exploit his work but also bring him into disrepute by making him the subject of unsavoury humour and false rumours.
Justice Karia indicated that platforms like Google could be directed to remove infringing content if the plaintiffs provided URL-specific details.
"We can ask Google to take down. But you have to give a URL specific to each defendant. YouTube, Amazon, and Flipkart are mentioned in the petition, but this order cannot be granted generally. It has to be divided defendant-wise," the judge said.
Bachchan is represented by the Anand and Naik team comprising Advocates Pravin Anand, Ameet Naik, Madhu Gadodia, Dhruv Anand, Udita Patro, Nimrat Singh, Deveesha Tudekar, Dhananjay Khanna, Aayushi Udani, Riya Kumar, and Unnati Gambani.
On September 9, Justice Karia also heard Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's plea seeking similar protection. She alleged rampant misuse of her name, photographs, and likeness through fake websites, unauthorised merchandise, and, in some instances, sexually explicit AI-generated content.
Her counsel, Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi, told the Court that merchandise such as mugs, T-shirts, and drinkware were being sold with her name and photos, and even a fraudulent company named Aishwarya Nation Wealth had falsely listed her as its Chairperson. He further flagged obscene, morphed images in circulation online, calling it a "gross violation of dignity."
Justice Karia signalled intent to pass an interim injunction restraining such misuse and scheduled the matter for further proceedings on January 15, 2026.
The Court noted that while a single consolidated order would be desirable, the wide range of reliefs sought required defendant-wise injunctions. Specific URLs, the judge added, could be dealt with either through direct takedown directions to platforms or via the Blocking and Screening Instructions (BSI) process. (ANI)