Cricketer Yuvraj Singh moved the Delhi High Court on Wednesday seeking protection of his personality rights.

The matter was heard by Justice Jyoti Singh who said that she will pass an interim order directing take down of infringing content against Singh.

The counsel appearing for the cricketer took the Court through a list of infringing links as of yesterday and said that two of them have been removed.

He said that the list contained link of those engaged in selling merchandise using Singh's personality attributes without his consent for monetary gains.

He said that one of the infringing links was regarding a post on Reddit where it is attributed that Singh used objectionable language against women and that there are derogatory comments against the cricketer.

The counsel appearing for Reddit said that the impugned link is two years old and that the action lies in defamation and not in suit for protection of personality rights.

Even though Singh's counsel said that new comments are being posted on the post, the Court noted that the post is two years old and that no transcripts of the same were given in the suit. The Court said that it will not pass any takedown direction for now regarding the said post and will consider the same later.

The Court said that it will direct takedown of infringing content and will first ask the uploaders to remove the content within 48 hours. It added that it will ask Singh to approach the intermediaries concerned if uploaders fail to take down the content and thereafter the intermediaries will remove the same within 36 hours. Uploaders have some responsibility, the judge remarked.

Justice Singh added that she is going to order takedown of urls which are part of the suit and then Singh can file application later for future links. I will extend the injunction if there is something infringing, the Court said.

The Court registered the plaint as suit and issued notice in the interim injunction application on which the intermediaries have been directed to file their replies. Compliance affidavit has to be filed within three weeks.

The matter will now be listed on November 30.

It may be noted that the Court has been protecting the personality rights of cricketer Abhishek Sharma, 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: YUVRAJ SINGH v. ASHOK KUMAR & ORS