Delhi HC protects Sunil Gavaskar’s personality rights

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday (December 23, 2025) protected the personality rights of former cricketer and commentator Sunil Gavaskar, restraining several websites and online platforms from using his name or images for commercial gain without his consent. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora also restrained several defendants from using Mr. Gavaskar’s personality traits through artificial intelligence and deepfake technology, and ordered the takedown of certain obscene content uploaded on the Internet. The court ordered the URLs of the offensive material should be taken down by the websites within 72 hours and in case of failure, the social media intermediaries concerned should remove the content. On December 12, the court had directed social media intermediaries to act within seven days on Mr. Gavaskar’s plea seeking protection of his personality rights. It had asked Mr. Gavaskar’s counsel to first approach the social media intermediaries with his grievances. The court directed the social media intermediaries to treat Mr. Gavaskar’s suit as a complaint under the Information and Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and take the necessary steps within seven days. On Tuesday, the court was informed that while some of the content had been removed, others were still there on the Internet. Mr. Gavaskar approached the court, seeking to prevent the unauthorised use of his name, images, persona and likeness by social media platforms and e-commerce websites, and to protect his personality rights. 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 Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary and podcaster Raj Shamani also approached the high court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights. The court granted them interim relief. Bollywood actor Salman Khan, Telugu actor NTR Rao Junior and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan have also approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection of their personality rights. Published - December 24, 2025 04:22 am IST

Preview: ~339 words