Delhi High Court passes permanent injunction in Amitabh Bachchan's personality rights suit

The Delhi High Court has decreed actor Amitabh Bachchan’s personality rights suit, permanently restraining several individuals and entities from using his name, image, voice and other aspects of his persona for commercial purposes without his consent. 

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav passed the order on November 5.

The Court decreed the suit against four defendants after the actor settled the dispute with them.

These included Rajat Nagi, who had developed a mobile application titled 'Amitabh Bachchan Video Call', Manoj Publications, which had published a general knowledge quiz book featuring Bachchan's photograph, Tamatina, which sold posters bearing his images, and Mahesh Patel, who had registered the domain name amitabhbachchan.in.

Under the settlement, these defendants acknowledged Bachchan's publicity and privacy rights and undertook not to use his name, image, voice, likeness or any other aspect of his persona without his express permission. They also agreed to be bound by the decree, including through their legal heirs and business assignees.

The Court also decreed the suit against four other defendants who had failed to appear or file written statements despite being served with summons. 

Further, the Court also extended the decree to unidentified infringers (John Does), observing that Bachchan’s plaint disclosed a continuing pattern of anonymous misuse of his persona through websites, applications, posters and messaging platforms.

It also granted the veteran actor liberty to institute fresh proceedings in case of any fresh cause of action and disposed of the suit. 

Notably, the High Court had passed an interim order protecting Bachchan's personality rights on November 25, 2022.

However, on October 9, 2026, the Court said that if Bachchan cannot settle the matter with one or more defendants and wanted to pursue the case in court, he must appear in Court.

Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi with advocates Pravin Anand, Ameet Naik, Madhu Gadodia, Dhruv Anand, Bhavya Verma, Unnati Gambani, Sanjeevi Sishadri, Shreya Sethi, Krisna Gambhir and Ritvik Sharma appeared for Amitabh Bachchan.

[Read Judgement]