Delhi HC protects personality rights of Andhra Pradesh Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has protected the personality rights of popular actor and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan by restraining several websites and online platforms from using his name or images for commercial gain without his consent.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, who was hearing a plea filed by Kalyan, restrained several defendants – 14 entities, including John Doe persons and several e-commerce websites – from using Kalyan's personality traits using artificial intelligence and deepfake technology till the next date of hearing.

In the order dated December 22, the court said, “The balance of convenience lies in favour of the plaintiff (Kalyan), and the continuing availability of the infringing content would cause him irreparable injury.”

The court noted that Kalyan is a known public figure and the serving deputy chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and his images, voice, name and likeness were being used by the defendant entities without his consent for selling merchandise for commercial gains, either directly or through e-commerce platforms.

It said the entities were using his personality attributes in AI software used on their webpages without his consent for commercial exploitation.

Referring to Kalyan's apprehension that some social media accounts were impersonating him, the court directed such accounts to specifically add a description mentioning “fan account” in their profiles.

It listed the matter for further hearing on May 12.

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 and her mother-in-law Jaya Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn and R Madhavan, filmmaker Karan Johar, singer Kumar Sanu, Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, Art of Living founder Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary and podcaster Raj Shamani also approached the high court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights.

The high court has granted them interim relief.