Gautam Gambhir Withdraws Plea Seeking Interim Relief Against Infringing Content In Suit For Protecting Personality Rights

Indian cricket team head coach Gautam Gambhir on Monday (March 23) withdrew from Delhi High Court his application for interim injunction against content allegedly infringing his personality rights. 

The application was filed in his main suit seeking protection of his personality rights. 

When the matter was taken up in the morning at the outset Justice Jyoti Singh asked advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai appearing for Gambhir, "Where is the prayer for take down?"

Dehadrai submitted that the prayer for take down of the infringing material may be considered as an "oral prayer". 

The court however orally asked, "How does a (Order) 39 (Rule) 1 and 2 work like that?".

The counsel for Meta submitted that, "Your lordships may direct, we will take it down. Prayer sought today is very wide. To that extent, whenever your lordships may pass order, wrt uploaders, your lordships may direct them and then we will take it down". 

The court passed over the matter to 2:30pm and asked Dehadrai to sit with Meta's counsel and highlight the infringing content.

When the matter was taken up post lunch the plaintiff sought to withdraw the application for interim injunction. The court in its order recorded:

"Counsel for the plaintiff seeks to withdraw this application (interim injunction) with liberty to file a fresh application with same cause of action with complete and better particulars. The application is disposed of as withdrawn with liberty as prayer for". 

Gambhir has sought Rs. 2.5 crore as damages from the defendants, including john doe (unknown entities) for allegedly misusing his name, image, and likeness for commercial gain and misinformation campaigns.

Gambhir is aggrieved by proliferation of AI-generated deepfakes and manipulated videos that falsely attribute statements and actions to him. He thus sought removal of such infringing and misleading content from social media platforms, including Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube and Facebook.

Recently, the judge had passed a john doe order protecting the personality rights of Yoga guru and Patanjali Ayurved founder Ramdev.

For context, coordinate benches have passed orders protecting personality rights of singer Jubin Nautiyal, Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Pawan Kalyan, 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 recently 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.

The suit is listed on March 5. 

Title: GAUTAM GAMBHIR v. ASHOK KUMAR/JOHN DOE & ORS