Delhi High Court To Pass Interim Order Protecting Vivek Oberoi's Personality Rights
The Delhi High Court on Friday said it would issue an interim order safeguarding the personality rights of actor and entrepreneur Vivek Oberoi.
The observation was made by Justice Tushar Rao Gedela when advocate Sana Raees Khan appeared on behalf of Oberoi in a suit seeking protection against misuse of his identity.
At the beginning of the hearing, the judge remarked, “We will pass orders.” When Khan asked whether submissions were required, the court replied, “Do you need to make any submission when the Court is saying it will pass orders?”
The suit, filed through advocates Sana Raees Khan and Pranay Chitale, seeks injunctions against several defendants, including unidentified John Doe entities. Oberoi has alleged infringement of his publicity and personality rights through unauthorised use and exploitation of attributes uniquely associated with him, including his name, image and voice.
According to the pleadings, the actor has sought directions for the takedown of postcards, posters, videos and various social media posts. He has alleged that unknown persons created fake social media profiles impersonating him, used his photograph and name to sell unauthorised merchandise, circulated AI-generated material, and employed deepfake technology to superimpose his face onto objectionable and distasteful content.
The suit states that some of the material is offensive, inappropriate, and defamatory. In other instances, it is alleged to have the potential to divert commercial value from Oberoi and allow third parties to profit from his identity.
“As only the Plaintiff has control over the commercial utilization of his personality, name, image, likeness and other characteristics that are uniquely identifiable and associated with the Plaintiff, no one can utilize and/or misappropriate and/or imitate any facet of the Plaintiff's personality and/or exploit the same commercially in any manner whatsoever without the consent and/or express authorization of the Plaintiff,” the plea reads.
The plea also relies on earlier orders passed by coordinate benches of the Delhi High Court protecting personality rights. These include orders in favour of Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, and actors R Madhavan and NTR Junior. A similar action has also been initiated by actor Salman Khan.
The court has previously extended similar protection to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Telugu actor Nagarjuna, actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan, and filmmaker Karan Johar.
More recently, the High Court granted protection to journalist Sudhir Chaudhary in connection with allegedly misleading and AI generated videos circulated online. It also issued a John Doe order in favour of podcaster Raj Shamani, noting his prominence in the digital content space.