Delhi High Court Orders Takedown Of Content Infringing Rights Of Physics Wallah Founder Alakh Pandey

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the removal of infringing content posted against educator and Physics Wallah founder Alakh Pandey.

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani passed the interim order while hearing a suit filed by Pandey seeking protection of his personality rights.

A detailed order will be passed specifying the nature of content ordered to be taken down. Justice Bhambhani said that he will be passing a detailed order giving reasoning of content ordered to be taken down.

The Court ordered the takedown of content that allegedly misusing Pandey's name and image without authorisation, particularly where such content was created for commercial purposes or was vulgar and sexually explicit.

Senior Advocate J Sai Deepak appearing for Pandey handed over to the Court a tabulated summary of the allegedly infringing URLs categorised under three heads- vulgar, obscene and sexually explicit content; content commercially exploiting Pandey's personality rights and content impersonating him.

The Court issued summons in the suit and ordered that there will be injunction regarding some URLs against defendants no 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 22, 24, 29, 30 and 31.

It directed Google, X (formerly Twitter), Telegram and LinkedIn to furnish basic subscriber information details to Pandey regarding the URLs or websites listed in the order.

It may be noted that the Court has been protecting the personality rights of cricketers Abhishek Sharma and Yuvraj Singh, political figures like Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Pawan Kalyan.

It has also protected rights of entrepreneur Aman Gupta, Telugu actor Allu Arjun, Malayalam actor Mohanlal, spiritual preacher Aniruddhacharya, singer Jubin Nautiyal, former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, and actors Kajol Devgan, R Madhavan and NTR Junior. Similar suit has been filed by actor Salman Khan.

The coordinate benches have also passed orders protecting the personality rights of “The Art of Living” foundation founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Telugu actor Nagarjuna, Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and film producer Karan Johar.

Notably, the Court also protected the personality rights of journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, who had sought relief regarding the circulation of allegedly misleading and AI-generated videos against him on social media.

The Court also passed a john doe order protecting the personality rights of podcaster Raj Shamani, observing that he is a known face in India, especially in the field of content creation.

Title: Alakh Pandey v. John Doe & Ors