Delhi HC protects podcaster Raj Shamani's personality rights

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has protected the personality rights of podcaster and entrepreneur Raj Shamani, and directed removal of certain objectionable posts against him on social media.

The court observed that it was of the prima facie view that Shamani was a known face in India, especially in the field of content creation who has gained goodwill and reputation over a course of a successful career and he was entitled to seek injunction against the use of his personality rights by third parties for commercial gains without his authorisation.

It said prima facie the podcaster's personality traits, including his name, likeness, voice, image are protectable elements of his personality rights.

"The plaintiff no. 1 (Shamani) is also entitled to protect himself against morphed and distorted content which is defaming and demeaning to or patently false as it is bound to affect his reputation and goodwill," Justice Manmeet PS Arora said in an order passed on November 17 and made available on Thursday.

The court passed the interim order while hearing Shamani's plea seeking to restrain unauthorised use of his image, persona, likeness and voice without his consent, and an injunction order against AI-generated content.

The court also registered his plaint as a suit in which he has sought permanent injunction restraining trademark infringement, passing off, copyright infringement, violation of common law rights, misappropriation of personality (publicity) rights, performers' right along with other ancillary reliefs against the defendants.

The high court also observed that Shamani's rights in the podcast "Figuring out with Raj Shamani" are protected under the Copyright Act, including the exclusive right to communicate the works to the public, and that protection is also warranted against the unauthorised use of the registered trademarks "FIGURING OUT".

It further restrained them from using the trademark "Figuring Out" and sharing, hosting or streaming Shamani's copyright protected works in his podcast and content without authorisation.

The court directed the social media entities to block or remove or take down the infringing content generated through AI and deepfake.

It listed the matter for further hearing on April 24, 2026.

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

Recently, Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, her husband Abhishek Bachchan, his mother Jaya Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, filmmaker Karan Johar, singer Kumar Sanu, Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, ‘Art of Living’ founder Ravi Shankar and journalist Sudhir Chaudhary also approached the high court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights, and the court granted them interim relief.