NEW DELHI — The Delhi High Court has granted interim relief to former Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh, restraining third parties from the unauthorized use of his name, image, voice, likeness, and other personality attributes for commercial or personal gain. In an order passed on July 29, Justice Jyoti Singh shielded the exploitation or misappropriation of both ‘Yuvraj Singh’ and his popular moniker ‘Yuvi’ across digital platforms, including unauthorized merchandise sales and AI-generated deepfake content. The court remarked that as one of India’s most decorated and globally renowned athletes who served the national team for 17 years, those violating his privacy rights must be dealt with firmly.
The lawsuit highlighted widespread digital misuse, noting that several social media accounts were actively circulating fabricated videos and AI-manipulated images depicting the cricketer in fictional, damaging scenarios. Legal counsel representing Singh presented evidence of objectionable content online, which ranged from religiously insensitive material to videos falsely depicting aggressive behavior toward fellow players and posts laced with vulgar language. The court noted that these deepfakes and unauthorized digital assets severely harm the goodwill and public reputation the sportsman built over years of international competition and social welfare work.
Directing social media giants like Meta Platforms to take down the flagged URLs, Justice Jyoti Singh affirmed that a public figure’s stature grants them exclusive proprietary authority over their persona for commercial purposes. The bench emphasized that third parties cannot misappropriate these individual traits without explicit authorization. By issuing this order, Yuvraj Singh joins a growing list of prominent public figures—including actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Salman Khan, alongside spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and cricketer Abhishek Sharma—who have successfully sought judicial protection from the Delhi High Court to safeguard their publicity and personality rights against modern digital exploitation.
