Delhi High Court Protects Singer Jubin Nautiyal's Personality Rights From Commercial Exploitation

The Delhi High Court has granted an ex-parte ad-interim injunction in favour of singer Jubin Nautiyal, restraining unauthorised commercial exploitation of his personality and publicity rights, including through artificial intelligence tools, deepfakes and voice cloning technologies.

Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, in an order dated February 19, 2026, held:

“In the considered opinion of this Court, the plaintiff has a prima facie strong case and having regard to his well-known, popular and well-accepted personality, the balance of convenience is tilted in favour of the plaintiff. In case, ex-parte ad-interim injunction and other directions, as sought, are not passed, the irreparable loss and injury which may occasion may not be compensated in monetary terms. The dent and damage to the image and personality of the plaintiff, prima facie, appears to be real and present.”

The suit seeks protection of the singer's name, voice, vocal style and technique, vocal arrangements and interpretations, manner of singing, image, photograph, caricature, likeness, and signature from unauthorised use and commercial exploitation.

A central grievance raised in the plaint concerns the use of technology, including generative artificial intelligence and machine learning, to create content mimicking his voice, facial features, and mannerisms. The Court records the allegation that certain platforms used “sophisticated machine learning algorithms” to create audio and visual content reproducing his features for unauthorised commercial and financial gains, including artificial intelligence voice models and unlicensed chatbots.

The suit also targets digital design platforms and online marketplaces. It alleges that merchandise bearing the singer's name and likeness, including posters, digital art prints, calendars, and generic pen drives containing his songs, were being advertised and offered for sale in a manner suggesting association or sponsorship.

Allowing the interim plea, the court restrained the defendants from

“utilizing and/or in any manner directly and/or indirectly, using or exploiting or misappropriating the plaintiff's personality/publicity rights; and/or any other attribute of his persona which is exclusively identifiable with him, for any commercial and/or personal gain…”

The restraint specifically extends to:

“creating or using artificial intelligence voice models or voice conversion tool, synthesized voices or digital avatars, caricatures that imitate or mimic or represent the plaintiff and/or plaintiff's personality traits, artificial intelligence, generative artificial intelligence, machine learning, deepfakes, face morphing and/or GIFs, or any other commercial endeavour and on any medium or formats including websites, Metaverse, social media, etc.”

The Court further directed the concerned online intermediaries and e-commerce platforms, including Flipkart and Amazon, to “take down/block access/suspend all infringing content” identified in the order, as well as any fresh links, posts, videos, mobile applications, or URLs subsequently notified by the plaintiff.

The matter is listed before the Joint Registrar on April 28, 2026.