NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday came to the aid of actor and parliamentarian Jaya Bachchan, granting her interim protection against unauthorised commercial exploitation of her name, image and persona across online platforms.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Arora issued injunctions restraining various websites, social media handles and e-commerce platforms from selling products or creating content that infringes on Bachchan’s personality rights.
Bachchan had moved the court alleging rampant misuse of her identity by several individuals and entities for monetary gain, including the sale of merchandise bearing her photographs and AI-generated videos replicating her likeness.
Appearing for Bachchan, Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi presented instances of social media accounts and websites that were misusing her personality. He submitted that “individuals were selling merchandise featuring her pictures and that unauthorised AI-generated videos were being generated misusing her likeness.”
After examining the submissions, Justice Arora said she would issue injunction orders against the infringing parties. However, the court refused to restrain a company selling posters of Bachchan and her husband Amitabh Bachchan from their 1973 film Abhimaan on Amazon. “Right now, I am not inclined to do this. I will direct them to place on record the Basic Subscriber Information details. This is not even hurting you. You don’t have any copyright in this,” the judge said.