Delhi High Court Protects Physics Wallah Founder Alakh Pandey's Personality Rights

The court, however, left out a specific YouTube video calling him "scamwala" for further consideration.

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani was hearing the matter, with Senior Advocate J Sai Deepak appearing for Pandey.

Pandey had moved the court seeking protection of his personality rights, citing widespread misuse of his name, image, and catchphrase "hello bachho" across social media and third-party websites.

His suit named intermediaries including Google, Meta, X and Telegram, along with several unidentified defendants, over content ranging from sexually explicit stickers and GIFs to coupon-code scams and impersonation pages falsely claiming association with him.

Recording that the counsel had, pursuant to the previous day's order, handed up a tabulated summary of allegedly infringing URLs sorted into three categories, vulgar or sexually explicit content, content commercially exploiting Pandey's personality, and content impersonating him, the court proceeded to issue summons in the suit and pass interim directions against specific defendants.

A dispute arose over a Telegram link said to promote a "PW Lectures" channel. Counsel for Telegram argued that no material had actually been placed on record to establish that the alleged sale was occurring at that URL.

"The material demonstrating that this... sale is happening at [this] URL is not in the plaint," counsel submitted. The court nonetheless directed the link's removal, observing, "Let's remove it, then let the aggrieved party come."

On an allegation of impersonation involving a Telegram channel called "RxL Lectures," counsel for the platform argued that the underlying grievance was really one of copyright, since the videos in question featured Pandey himself rather than an impersonator.

Counsel for Pandey disputed this, pointing the court to the relevant paragraph of the plaint and to a specific page of documents. "That person is not me," he said, describing the individual as someone who wore similar spectacles and a similar hairstyle while running unauthorised lectures under the Physics Wallah name.

The court reserved a specific item, a YouTube video titled with the word "scamwala" instead of "Physics Wallah," which had drawn about 50,000 views. Pandey's counsel clarified that only that video was being pressed, not two others still live on the platform, and that the objection was not to criticism or humour but to being called a "scamster."

The court asked to watch the video before deciding and listed that limited issue separately, excluding the said entry from today's order.

The court passed the injunction in terms of Paragraph 66, directing takedown of content against the concerned defendants, and directed Google, X and Telegram to furnish basic subscriber information as sought.