New Delhi: Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan has filed a petition before the Delhi High Court seeking protection of his personality rights, including his name, image, voice, photographs, and performances, from unauthorised use on digital platforms for commercial or personal purposes.
The matter was heard today by Justice Tejas Karia, who said the Court could direct Google to take down links infringing Bachchan’s rights if the petitioner provides a list of specific URLs. “YouTube, Amazon, and Flipkart are mentioned in the petition, but the order cannot be general. It must be separated defendant-wise,” Justice Karia remarked.
Representing Bachchan, advocate Pravin Anand assured the Court that the details would be submitted, requesting time to divide the URLs accordingly. The matter will be heard again at 2:30 PM today. His legal team also includes Ameet Naik, Madhu Gadodia, Dhruv Anand, Udita Patro, Nimrat Singh, Deveesha Tudekar, Dhananjay Khanna, Aayushi Udani, Riya Kumar, and Unnati Gambani.
This development comes a day after Abhishek’s wife, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, approached the Delhi High Court with a similar plea to safeguard her personality rights. She raised concerns over the commercial and digital misuse of her identity through fake websites, unauthorised merchandise, and morphed or AI-generated obscene images.
Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi, appearing for Rai, argued that a company had even fraudulently listed her as its Chairperson without consent. Justice Karia, hearing both cases, said a comprehensive order could be considered, but injunctions must be issued against each defendant individually. He also noted that infringing content could be taken down via court directions or through the Blocking and Screening Instructions (BSI) process.
