Delhi High Court Protects Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's Personality Rights

Delhi High Court has barred the misuse of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's name, photographs etc. through online platforms or via artificial intelligence. The HC order came after the actress moved court regarding protection of her personality rights.

“When the identity of a famous personality is used without their consent or authorization, it may cause commercial detriment and impact their right to live with dignity” Delhi High Court. The court said that Aishwarya has established a good prima facie case, and the balance of convenience also tilts in her favour.

Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi appeared for Rai before Justice Tejas Karia to seek enforcement of her publicity and personality rights. Singh said, many websites are selling merchandise by using his client's name for which they have no authorisation.

“The misuse of the Plaintiff’s name, image, likeness and other elements of the Plaintiff’s persona clearly constitutes infringement as the adoption of the aforementioned attributes such as name, image, signature, likeness, etc. without any authorization from the Plaintiff, will inevitably cause confusion and create a perception of endorsement by the Plaintiff.” High Court held.

Delhi HC also said, “It is clear that the attributes of the Plaintiff’s persona, including her name and images, are being misused. It further added that the, said "misuse is not only causing financial detriment to the Plaintiff, but also leads to harming her dignity, reputation and goodwill.”

“Since the Plaintiff is one of the most celebrated personalities in the Indian entertainment industry, who has served various brands as their ambassador, she has garnered significant goodwill and reputation such that the members of the public repose their trust in the brands endorsed by the Plaintiff", the court noted.

Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan had moved Delhi High Court to restrain websites and online platforms from using her image, likeness and persona, to sell T-shirts, wall papers etc thereby infringing her "personality rights". High Court has now passed an ad-interim order injuncting the defendant entities.