Delhi High Court Grants Relief To Acharya Manish Against AI-Generated Fake Endorsements

The Delhi High Court has granted temporary protection to the personality rights of Manish Grover, popularly known as 'Acharya Manish' or 'Chikitsaguru,' after finding a prima facie case that unknown persons used artificial intelligence to create fake endorsements of health products using his voice and videos.

Granting an ad-interim injunction on June 5, a vacation bench of Justice Saurabh Banerjee observed that the unknown operators of various social media accounts had “gone a step further” than merely making unauthorized use of Grover's personality attributes by “employing artificial intelligence to create the false impression that plaintiff no.1 is endorsing or promoting products and services with which he has no association.”

Grover and his company, Jeena Sikho Lifecare Ltd, approached the Court alleging that rogue social media accounts were exploiting his reputation by using AI-generated voice cloning technology to dub false endorsements onto genuine video footage of him. The content was allegedly used to promote third-party products without his consent.

According to the suit, the infringing content was hosted primarily on Facebook and Instagram. It involved taking real video footage of Acharya Manish without authorization and manipulating it with AI-cloned voice recordings to falsely promote products, including foot pads, herbal treatments, and blood sugar patches.

One of the videos, according to the material placed before the Court, wrongly depicted Grover being arrested, taken into custody with handcuffs and later managing to get out due to his medicinal remedies.

The suit was filed against unidentified persons and entities allegedly operating social media pages, Instagram accounts and Facebook advertisements that were exploiting Grover's persona for commercial gain. Meta Platforms Inc., through its Indian entity, was also impleaded as a party because Facebook and Instagram were the primary platforms on which the content was hosted.

According to the suit, Grover is a widely recognized Ayurvedic practitioner and health guru who formally began his work in Ayurveda in 2009. He later founded Divya Upchar Sansthan and currently serves as the founder and managing director of Jeena Sikho Lifecare Ltd, which operates in the Ayurvedic and integrated healthcare sector.

The Court noted the submissions that Grover's work has received extensive media coverage and that he has built a significant presence through television appearances, public engagements and social media platforms. It also took note of the assertion that his philanthropic activities and awards have contributed to a distinct public persona.

After examining the pleadings and material on record, the Court prima facie held that Grover's “name, image, likeness and voice have become uniquely associated with him and constitute valuable facets of his personality and publicity rights.”

“This Court is of the prima facie view that the plaintiff no.1 is a known face in India, especially in the field of ayurveda, naturopathy and integrated healthcare, whose professional work, media presence, public engagements and philanthropic activities have resulted in the creation of a distinct and identifiable persona. Consequently, the name, image, likeness and voice of plaintiff no.1 have, therefore, become uniquely associated with him and constitute valuable facets of his personality and publicity rights,” the court observed.

The court further observed that the operators of the impugned accounts appeared to be making “a deliberate attempt to capitalize upon the goodwill, credibility and public trust enjoyed by plaintiff no.1.”

It noted that the alleged conduct went beyond ordinary misuse because artificial intelligence had been used to create false endorsements of products and services with which Grover had no connection.

Holding that Grover and his company had established a prima facie case and would suffer irreparable harm if protection was not granted, the Court restrained the unidentified account operators and others acting on their behalf from using or exploiting Grover's name, voice, photographs, videos and other attributes associated with his persona. The court also restrained them from passing off goods or services as being endorsed by him.

Meta was directed to permanently disable, block access to, or suspend all infringing links and content identified in annexure to the order. The court also permitted Grover and his company to approach the platform directly during the pendency of the suit if further infringing content surfaced online.

The matter is scheduled to be heard by the roster bench on October 6, 2026.