NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted protection to former cricketer and commentator Sunil Gavaskar’s personality rights, restraining multiple websites and digital platforms from using his name or images for commercial purposes without authorisation.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora also barred the defendants from exploiting Gavaskar’s personality traits through artificial intelligence tools and deepfake technology. The court further directed that obscene and objectionable content circulating online in his name must be taken down.

72-hour deadline for removal of infringing content

The high court ordered that URLs hosting offensive material, infringing posts, videos and related content be removed by the concerned websites within 72 hours. It added that if the platforms fail to comply, the social media intermediaries must step in and ensure the content is taken down.

The matter has been listed for further hearing on May 22.

Reacting to the order, Gavaskar said it “marks an important judicial recognition of a sportsperson's personality and publicity rights in India, particularly in cases of unauthorised attribution, digital dissemination and commercial exploitation across social media and e-commerce platforms”.

Background of the case and wider legal trend

Earlier, on December 12, the high court had instructed social media intermediaries to respond within seven days to Gavaskar’s plea seeking protection of his personality rights. His counsel was first asked to approach the platforms with specific grievances, following which the intermediaries were directed to treat the suit as a complaint under the Information Technology Rules, 2021.

The court was informed on Tuesday that while some content had been removed, several infringing posts continued to remain online, prompting further directions.

Gavaskar moved the high court to stop the unauthorised use of his name, images, persona and likeness by social media platforms and e-commerce websites, citing misuse and commercial exploitation.

Personality or publicity rights allow individuals to protect, control and monetise the use of their name, image or likeness. In recent months, several prominent public figures including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn, R Madhavan, Karan Johar, Kumar Sanu, Akkineni Nagarjuna, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Sudhir Chaudhary and Raj Shamani have received interim relief from the Delhi High Court on similar pleas.

Salman Khan, NTR Rao Junior and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan have also approached the court seeking protection of their personality rights.

(With PTI Inputs)