Delhi HC protects Aishwarya Rai's personality rights, bars websites from illegally using name, image

New Delhi, Sep 11 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has protected the personality rights of Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, barring online platforms from illegally using her name, images for commercial gain.

The high court said when the identity of a famous personality is used without their consent or authorisation, it may not only lead to commercial detriment to the individual concerned but also impact their right to live with dignity.

"The courts in such cases of unauthorised exploitation of one's personality rights, cannot turn a blind-eye to the same and shall protect the aggrieved parties so as to avert any harm to them resulting from the said unauthorised exploitation," Justice Tejas Karia said in an order passed on September 9 and made available on Thursday.

On September 10, the court also heard a similar plea by Rai's husband Abhishek Bachchan who sought to protect his personality rights and to restrain online platforms from illegally using his name, images and sexually explicit material.

The court said it would pass an interim order on Abhishek's plea.

In 2023, the couple's daughter Aaradhya Bachchan had also approached the high court seeking to restrain and take down misleading content on her health.

In Rai's case, the court found prima facie material to grant an ex-parte injunction.

"Balance of convenience lies in favour of the plaintiff and if an injunction is not granted in the present case, it will lead to an irreparable loss/harm to the plaintiff and her family, not only financially, but also with respect to her right to live with dignity," it said.

The court passed the interim order on a plea by Rai seeking to protect her personality rights and restrain online platforms from illegally using her name, images and AI-generated pornographic content.

The suit relates to misappropriation of various aspects of her personality, including her name, image, likeness, persona and voice, and the defendants are using them for their own commercial gain without obtaining her consent.

The right to publicity, popularly known as personality rights, is the right to protect, control, and profit from one's image, name, or likeness.

The court said the unauthorised exploitation of the attributes of an individual's personality may have two facets – violation of their right to protect their personality attributes from being commercially exploited and violation of their "right to privacy", which in turn leads to undermining their "right to live with dignity".

The court issued summons to the defendants and asked them to file their written statements within a month and listed the matter for January 15 next year.

The court restrained the defendants, including unknown entities (john doe) from exploiting or misappropriating the actor's name "Aishwarya Rai Bachchan" and acronym "ARB", her image and likeness and any other attributes of her persona for any commercial or personal gain without her consent, through the use of any technology including but not limited to artificial intelligence, generative artificial intelligence, machine learning, deepfakes, face morphing, on any medium and format.

It directed Google to take down, remove and disable the URLs given in the application and to also file in a sealed cover or password protected document all the "basic subscriber information" of the owners or operators and sellers of the goods.

The court further directed the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Department of Telecommunications to issue necessary directions to block and disable all the URLs mentioned in the plea.

Attributes of Rai's persona, including her name and images, are being misused by the defendant websites and platforms, without any authorisation from her, by employing technological tools, including AI, it added.

The alleged misuse was not only causing financial detriment to Rai, but also harming her dignity, reputation and goodwill, it said.

Since Rai is one of the most celebrated personalities in the Indian entertainment industry, who served various brands as their ambassador, the court held the actor had garnered significant goodwill and reputation that translated into the members of the public reposing trust in the brands she endorsed.

Any infringement of the plaintiff's personality rights, while causing confusion among the members of the public regarding endorsement or sponsorship of a product or service by her, will also lead to dilution of her reputation and goodwill, the court held.

The different aspects of Rai's personality which she sought to be protected include her name, voice, image, unique style of dialogue delivery and signature.

The suit has arrayed as defendants, websites like aishwaryaworld.com, apkpure.com, bollywoodteeshop.com, kashcollectiveco.com which unauthorisedly sells products with name and photograph of the actor.

Further, the plea has arrayed as defendants e-commerce platform Etsy, organisation 'Aishwarya Nation Wealth Motivational Speaker, chatbot with AI characters www.jainatorai.com , YouTube channel @NewNWSTamil, @Bollywood_CinemaTV07, Google LLC, Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Department of Telecommunications. PTI SKV SKV AMK AMK