Physics Wallah Founder Alakh Pandey Moves Delhi High Court Seeking Protection Of Personality Rights
Court said it is willing to pass orders against those using Pandey's name to make money.
Alakh Pandey, educator and founder of Physics Wallah, moved the Delhi High Court on Monday seeking protection of his personality rights.
Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani listed the matter for tomorrow after putting certain queries to Senior Advocate J Sai Deepak appearing for Pandey.
The Court directed Deepak to present in a tabulated form the alleged infractions by specific defendants that lead to three categories of violations: commercialisation or monetisation of Pandey's personality; content that can ex-facie be seen to be vulgar or sexually explicit and short of being satire or parody or content which is libel or slander which may be either protected under free speech regime or amenable to action outside of personality rights framework.
During the hearing, Deepak took the Court through the achievements and merits in the name of Pandey, as well as the infringing content.
He said that Pandey has participated with various governments, has more than 300 centres across cities, has partnered with the Government of India on several levels and has even collaborated with many prominent personalities.
The senior counsel submitted that Pandey has more than 3.1 million followers on Instagram, more than 14 million subscribers on YouTube and even a series based on his life is available on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
He said that Pandey's mark “hello bachho”, his tone and face is very popular. This is a personality worth protecting, he said.
On the infringing content, Deepak said that hundreds of pages are being run offering discounts using Pandey's personality attributes, defamatory content on social media, AI generated images, stickers and GIFs made for commercial purposes.
He said that the impugned content has the real prospect of lowering Pandey's position in the eyes of his students as an educator. Deepak said that Pandey is the youngest millionaire in India in the education sector.
The counsel appearing for Google said that BSI (Basic Subscriber Identification) details of the defendants in question can be given to Pandey and the said parties can be there in Court to present their position. He said that relief regarding content relating to parody or satire cannot be granted in a suit for personality rights as the remedy lies in a different suit.
The Court remarked that too many reliefs were sought by Pandey under the umbrella of personality rights, including issues of trademark and copyright violations, defamation and libel etc.
“As of today I am willing to pass an interim ex parte order in relation to those defendants who are monetising your name in a positive way to make money,” the Court remarked.
Deepak then said that the suit has not been filed against criticism or a meme which is funny but relief ought to be granted for content which is commercialisation or sexually explicit and defamatory content violating the personality of Pandey.
He said that it was not the question of reputation but of personality and that it is Pandey's “larger than life” image which needs to be protected. Deepak said that there is not a single pleading in the suit which is ultra sensitive to criticism.
The Court then listed the matter for hearing tomorrow.
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