Delhi High Court issues summons in Abhishek Sharma's personality rights suit, directs removal of offending content

The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought responses of individuals and entities accused of violating Indian cricketer Abhishek Sharma's personality rights by publishing allegedly defamatory, obscene and AI-generated content about him.

.Justice Jyoti Singh said the Court will direct the removal of certain offending online content against Sharma.

"At this point in time, I will direct their takedown and I will injunct the defendants as we usually do," said the Court.

Additionally, the Court directed issuance of summons and notice to the defendants through their social media handles and addresses.

The matter has been listed for further hearing on November 17.

Sharma moved the Court seeking protection of his personality rights and takedown of alleged defamatory and Artificial Intelligence-generated (AI) content portraying him in bad light.

Sharma in the suit sought takedown of certain infringing content including AI-generated material circulating on social media.

He alleged that several social media posts use AI-generated images and misleading captions to portray him falsely.

During the previous hearing, his counsel had argued that one such AI-generated post falsely depicted Sharma with his manager and referred to her as his girlfriend, thereby creating a misleading impression.

During today's hearing, advocate Bahl, appearing for Sharma, informed the Court that pursuant to the additional affidavit filed in compliance with its earlier order, several of the offending URLs had already been taken down.

Appearing for Meta Platforms, advocate Varun Pathak submitted that only two offending URLs remained on Meta's platforms and assured the Court that those Instagram links would also be removed.

The Court thereafter examined the Facebook and Instagram posts placed on record and scrutinised the list of URLs flagged in the plaint.

Bahl further submitted that some of the remaining material was obscene and profane. He also pointed out that unauthorised listings using Sharma's identity continued to be available on e-commerce platforms, including Amazon and Flipkart.

Advocates Gaurav Bahl, Anku Khanna, Arundhati Dhar, Harshita and Sachin Thakker appeared for Sharma.

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