Delhi HC grants injunction in favour of Kajol in personality rights case

The Delhi High Court granted an ad-interim injunction protecting Kajol Devgan’s personality and publicity rights, restraining unauthorized commercial use of her image, name, or likeness and ordering the removal of pornographic and AI-generated content online

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday passed an ad-interim injunction protecting the personality and publicity rights of Bollywood actress Kajol Devgan, restraining various entities from unauthorised use of her name, image and likeness for commercial gains and directing the removal of obscene and pornographic content published against her.

A single-judge Bench of Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice in the suit filed by the actress and granted interim protection, restraining the defendants from using Kajol’s photographs and other personality attributes while selling commercial merchandise without her authorisation.

---

Justice Singh further directed the immediate takedown of pornographic and objectionable material circulated on different online platforms in her name.

The Delhi High Court observed that prima facie, the plaintiff had made out a case for protection of her personality and publicity rights against unauthorised commercial exploitation and misuse. A detailed order would be passed restraining the misuse of Kajol’s personality traits, including her name, image, voice and other identifiable attributes, through Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools or Deepfake technology.

The interim relief was granted in a plea seeking protection against the misuse of Kajol’s personality rights, including unauthorised sale of merchandise bearing her image and the circulation of morphed, obscene and defamatory material on the Internet.

The Delhi High Court observed that no entity can commercially exploit the actress’ identity without her consent and that social media platforms and other online intermediaries are required to act promptly upon being notified of infringing content.

The Kajol case adds to a growing list of high-profile personalities invoking their personality and publicity rights before the Delhi High Court. In recent months, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, actor Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (Jr NTR), spiritual leader and Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, actors Nagarjuna, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Abhishek Bachchan, film-maker Karan Johar, and podcaster Raj Shamani have secured court protection against the unauthorised use of their identity, likeness, or AI-generated imitations.