Delhi High Court protects personality rights of actor-politician Ravi Kishan

The Delhi High Court has passed an order for the takedown of content involving the unauthorised exploitation of the personality rights of actor and politician Ravi Kishan.

Justice Jyoti Singh has restrained the publication of any derogatory or vulgar material using Kishan's image or referring to his personality traits.

Justice Singh also directed the social media intermediaries Google, Meta and X Corp to take down web links of such content within 72 hours, in case the entities and persons who uploaded them and the domain name registrars do not remove it within three days of receiving the Court's July 2 order.

The Court passed the interim order in a suit filed by Kishan seeking the protection of his personality rights and seeking directions against the circulation of AI-generated obscene and derogatory content on websites and social media.

Among other content flagged by him was a radio segment on Ishq 104.8 FM called 'What is Love with Kavi Kishan.' He contended that the segment violated his rights by using his name, image and likeness for commercial purposes without his authorisation. He added that an Al-generated video featuring his mock imitation could also be found on IshqFM's official Instagram account.

The Court has now issued an injunction order against Creative Channel Advertising and Marketing Private Limited, also called Manoranjan TV Network, the owner of Ishq 104.8 FM.

The interim order for the takedown of content found infringing Kishan's personality rights also applies to several other parties, including John Does (unknown persons), found to have uploaded such content.

The matter is listed for further hearing on October 15.

Senior advocates N Hariharan and Sanjay Upadhaya along with advocates Neeraj Grover, Krishna Kumar Shukla, Madhav Anand, Pranav Prasoon, Alvin Antony, Mansi Bachani, Kunal Khanna and Kartik Mitra, appeared for Kishan.

[Read order]