Mohanlal Withdraws Plea For Interim Relief In Personality Rights Suit Before Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Monday allowed Malayalam actor Mohanlal Viswanathan Nair to withdraw his application seeking an interim injunction in a personality rights suit, after the court indicated that the plea lacked the necessary specificity to enable enforceable takedown directions against intermediaries such as Meta and Google.

A single bench of Justice Jyoti Singh permitted the withdrawal with liberty to file a fresh application containing detailed particulars, including a defendant-wise classification of allegedly infringing links involving deepfakes, unauthorized merchandise, fake endorsements and voice-cloning tutorials.

The Court recorded the withdrawal, stating:

“Counsel for the plaintiff seeks to withdraw this application… with liberty to file a fresh application with same cause of action with complete and better particulars. The application is disposed of as withdrawn with liberty as prayer for.”

During the hearing, Justice Singh stressed that any order directing intermediaries to remove content must be based on clearly identified URLs and properly categorised defendants. The judge also questioned the manner in which certain sellers and uploaders had been described as “proforma parties,” observing that such terminology is not recognised under the Code of Civil Procedure.

“Where is this whole concept of proforma coming from? Just as we don't know where the proxy counsel comes from, I don't know where the proforma comes from,” the Court remarked.

The Court also directed that counsel for Meta Platforms be present to assist in implementing any future takedown directions.

“Is it easier to implement the order if he is here? Because most of it is either you or Meta. Please ask him to come,” Justice Singh said, adding that the objective was to make the process “easier for implementation.”

The suit was filed to protect the reputation and commercial rights of Mohanlal, who described his standing before the Court as,

“Padma Bhushan awardee… Padma Shri awardee… two times national award winner actor…”

His counsel submitted that the actor is facing five broad categories of infringement, including unauthorized merchandise, fake endorsements, AI-generated videos, voice cloning tools and fraudulent social media promotions. According to the submissions, unauthorized sale of merchandise using the actor's likeness causes direct financial loss, while AI-generated videos and deepfakes are being hosted largely on Meta and Google platforms.

Of particular concern, counsel said, was the rise of voice-cloning tutorials available online.

“Third which is very alarming is something called voice cloning,” counsel submitted, pointing to YouTube videos explaining “how to clone Mr. Mohanlal's voice”.

The Court was also told that the actor's image is being used in misleading advertisements and fake schemes promising money to users.

“So tomorrow I have to answer to several hundreds of people for these mischiefs played by all these people,” counsel argued.

Counsel appearing for Google urged the Court to examine the content of individual links before issuing directions, submitting that some material may fall within permissible uses such as satire or character snippets.

“They do not seem to be misappropriating or derogatory in any manner,” the intermediary's counsel said, adding that some AI-generated images were merely “caricatures” or “snippets” of characters.

Mohanlal's counsel, however, responded that even seemingly harmless images are often later used commercially and are “marketed” and “turn into posters” for unauthorized sale.