Delhi High Court Protects Personality Rights Of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Injuncts Deepfake And Morphed Content

The Delhi High Court has recently passed a john doe order protecting the personality rights of “The Art of Living” foundation founder, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora restrained john doe (unknown entities) from infringing Shankar's personality and publicity rights by using his name, voice, image, likeness, unique style of discourse and delivery or any other attribute exclusively identifiable with him, for any commercial or personal gain, without his consent.The direction applies to all formats and on all mediums, including Artificial Intelligence generated content, deepfake videos, voice-cloned audio, metaverse environments, or any future formats. “….a prima facie case is made out in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendant no. 1. Balance of convenience is also in favour of the plaintiff, and irreparable harm will be cause to the plaintiff, if defendant no. 1's (john doe) are not restrained to publish/circulate the deepfake contents,” the Court said.Justice Arora passed the ad interim ex-parte injunction order in favour of Shankar in his suit seeking protection of his personality rights. It was his case that various unknown entities were circulating his fake and fabricated videos on Facebook and other independent websites, by using AI technologies and deepfake tools. It was averred that the entities were using such tools to impersonate his voice, facial expressions, persona and likeness, thereby creating a false impression amongst the world at large that he was personally speaking, endorsing or promoting the content.It was Shankar's case that such 'deepfake' videos published under different usernames and pages falsely depicted him as promoting alleged Ayurvedic or natural remedies for serious health conditions with exaggerated and unfounded claims for instant and immediate cures for serious ailments.He said that the videos falsely claim that he has conducted years of research or tested the remedies or that he had discovered such remedies during meditation. In its order, the Court directed Meta Platforms to remove or disable access to specific pages, URLs, profiles, accounts, videos, photos, any morphed and infringing content, text, social media groups, and channels from its platform concerning Shankar. “In case the plaintiff, during the pendency of the present suit, discover any more false, fabricated and/ or morphed infringing content not originating from or associated with the plaintiff, the plaintiff shall be at liberty to approach the Defendant no. 4 requesting them to block/ take down, within 36 hours, any such post/ image/ video/ text/ or any other morphed infringing content, which is published on its platforms or utilizing its platforms,” the Court said. It added that if Shankar comes across further websites during the pendency of the suit which infringe his personality and publicity rights and or are fake videos, he will be at liberty to approach the Joint Registrar for their impleadment. Title: RAVI SHANKAR v. JOHN DOE(S) / ASHOK KUMAR(S) & ORSCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1242Click here to read order

Delhi High Court Protects Personality Rights Of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Injuncts Deepfake And Morphed Content

Nupur Thapliyal

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