Jaya Bachchan Moves Delhi High Court Seeking Protection Of Her Personality Rights

Actress and Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) Jaya Bachchan has moved the Delhi High Court seeking protection of her personality rights.

The matter was heard by a bench of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora.

Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi was appearing for Bachchan. 

He referred to the first defendant, saying that morphed images of the actress have been published. He also told the Court about details of other defendants allegedly selling merchandise using her images.

On the claim of her image being used in movie posters, the court remarked, "These are movie posters. How do you claim copyright in these? Copyright is not vested with you but with whoever is owner of the movie."

Further, Sethi also referred to other defendants, including a YouTube channel and an Instagram page posting morphed images of the actress and other pictures impersonating her.

He also said that the Youtube channel was posting videos defaming her.

Noting that only Google's counsel was appearing, the Court asked the Bachchan's legal team to refile the plaint, and also serve the counsels for Union of India, Ebay, Facebook and Amazon. 

“You need to refile the plaint. There are many typographical errors. I will pass the order but you refile it in two days. Please also refile the application also. I will pass the order but please refile that also,” the judge said.

The matter will now be heard at 1:25 PM.

Recently, coordinate benches have 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, Justice Arora 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.

Title: Jaya Bachchan v. Bollywood Bubble & Ors