Actor Salman Khan had approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection of his personality and publicity rights. On Thursday, the Delhi High Court directed social media intermediaries to act within three days on Bollywood actor Salman Khan's petition.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora also said that she herself would pass stay orders against those defendants who have been misusing Khan's name, photos, and other personality attributes for the sale of commercial merchandise.
The High Court directed the social media intermediaries to treat Khan's suit as a complaint under the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
Salman Khan's Claims
Salman has urged the Court to issue directions restraining several named and unnamed (John Doe) defendants from exploiting his name, image, voice, likeness, dialogues, mannerisms, and other attributes that form part of his persona.
His counsel, Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi, told the Court today that Apple, an AI chatbot, a few e-marketplaces, and RedBubble have allowed infringement of Khan's personality rights. He also objected to certain fan accounts using photoshopped pictures of him.
The Court questioned, "What is your issue with fan accounts?" It furthermore argued that the photos had not been used inappropriately or in an obscene manner.
"It is my registered trademark. They use photoshopped photos; these are not my real photos. It was done without his consent" Sethi said.
The Court then asked an intermediary about its policy when a person flags a violation of personality rights through merchandise being sold online.
"If the party directly writes to you to say that his personality rights are being violated because there is merchandise on your website which is not authorised, what is your policy?" it asked.
"These links are already inactive. We act on orders. It is case by case; there is no policy in place, but we do it," the counsel for the intermediary replied.
The Recent Trend Of Protecting Celebrity Personality Rights
The plea highlights a broader trend observed in recent months, in which leading film personalities and digital creators have sought judicial intervention to protect the commercial and dignitary aspects of their identities.
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 and Ajay Devgn, filmmaker Karan Johar, singer Kumar Sanu, Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, 'Art of Living' founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, and podcaster Raj Shamani have also approached the High Court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights. The court granted them interim relief.
Telugu actor NTR Rao Junior has also approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection of his personality rights. The court is yet to pass an order on his plea.
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