"One of the most decorated cricketers": Delhi High Court protects Gautam Gambhir's personality rights

The Delhi High Court has passed an interim order protecting the personality rights of Gautam Gambhir, the coach of the Indian men's national cricket team.

Justice Jyoti Singh observed that Gambhir is one of the most decorated cricketers of India, and infringing content and merchandise gaining commercial value from his formidable goodwill and reputation without his authorisation violates his personality and publicity rights.

Therefore, the Bench restrained multiple entities and unidentified individuals from unauthorised use of Gambhir's name, image and likeness, particularly through Artificial Intelligence-generated content and online merchandise.

"Till the next date of hearing, Defendants No. 1 to 10 as also their agents, representatives and all persons claiming through them or acting on their behalf are restrained from using and/or in any manner, directly or indirectly, exploiting or misappropriating Plaintiff’s: (i) names Gautam Gambhir, Gauti and GG; (ii) image; (iii) voice; and (iv) likeness and/or any other attribute of his persona, without his authorization or consent, for any commercial and/or personal gain," the Court said in its March 25 order.

In his personality rights suit, Gambhir had argued that there is a coordinated campaign of digital impersonation, AI-generated deepfakes, and unauthorised commercial exploitation of Gambhir's personality.

The plea said that beginning in 2025 there has been a sharp and alarming increase in fabricated digital content across Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube and Facebook about the former cricketer.

Multiple accounts deployed artificial intelligence, face-swapping and voice-cloning technologies to create realistic videos falsely depicting Gambhir making statements he never made — including a fraudulent "resignation announcement" that garnered over 29 lakh views. 

Beyond social media, major e-commerce platforms were facilitating the sale of posters and merchandise bearing his name and likeness without any authorisation, it was submitted.

After hearing the case, the Court passed the interim order in Gambhir's favour.

Advocates Jai Anant Dehadrai and Srutee Priyadarshini appeared for Gautam Gambhir.

[Read Order]