Personality rights cannot be used to stifle freedom of expression, satire: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has said that it will examine whether suits seeking protection of personality rights suits are increasingly being used to prevent dissemination of information relating to a wrongdoing, or block satire or parody in the name of publicity rights [Alakh Pandey v John Doe(s) and Ors]

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani made the observation while dealing with the suit filed by Alakh Pandey, the founder of PhysicsWallah, seeking protection of his personality rights.

The Bench said Pandey’s claim of personality rights in the suit may be overly broad. It stressed that the Court’s duty is to ensure that such cases are not misused for getting orders to take down legally permissible forms of expression.

"In view of an earlier decision of a Coordinate Bench of this court in DM Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. vs. Baby Gift House and Others , this court would want to examine and ensure that personality rights are not deployed to prevent dissemination of information in relation to wrongdoing; or to extinguish an entire genre of expression including caricature, lampooning or parody which may not amount to commercial exploitation of an individual’s personality or publicity rights,” Justice Bhambhani said.

Thus, in the interim order passed on August 5, the Court ordered that the takedown shall be limited only to three sets of violations - websites and social media content flagged as obscene, derogatory and involving unauthorised commercial use and impersonating Pandey's personality traits.

The Court also issued summons to the defendants (those accused of uploading objectionable content) in the suit and sought their response.

It further directed Google, Telegram, X and Automatic Inc to share the basic subscriber information (BSI) of those behind the websites flagged for hosting objectionable content.

Further, the Court granted liberty to Pandey to approach the concerned intermediaries in case it comes across any other infringing website. Upon such intimation, the intermediaries, Internet Service Providers (ISP) or the Domain Name Registrars (DNR) are required to technically verify the claims.

The Court said that the role of ISP and DNR is limited only to the extent of technical verification of the claim that the website complained of is indeed rogue.

"In the present case, what the court is delegating is not the discretion for an ISP or a DNR to decide whether or not to block a website; but only the task of technically verifying if a given website, that is claimed by the plaintiff to be rogue, is indeed a mirror/alphanumeric/re-direct website of the defendant websites against whom an order of injunction has already been passed by this court," the order said. 

The Court added if the websites highlighted in the plea are found to be rogue, the concerned ISP and DNR are required to enforce the exparte ad-interim injunction granted in this order.

"This court does not discern any real risk that the plaintiff would misuse the direction granted by this court,” it added.

Pandey was represented by Senior Advocate J Sai Deepak. He flagged certain obscene and derogatory content against his client and highlighted instances where Pandey's personality traits were commercially exploited without consent.

"Telegram stickers are being made from my face and being sold for commercial purposes. As an educator, it has the potential to bring me down in the eyes of the students. Innuendoes and insinuations are made. The content is commercial, unauthorised and downright obscene. There is heavy-duty sexually demeaning content that shows me in a predatory light. Abusive language is used. We are not ultra sensitive to criticism. Some red lines people have to follow," he stated.

Deepak also told the Court about instances of impersonation on a Telegram channel called ‘Alakh Sir lectures’ and fake social media accounts in Pandey's name.

A parody and satirical video on Pandey was also played in the court. However, after watching the short clip, the Court refused to pass a takedown order of this specific video.

Senior Advocate J Sai Deepak with Mohit Goel, Abhishek Kotnala, Kartikeya Tandon,Urva shi Singh, M Mazumndar and Sidhi Pramod R appeared for Pandey.

Advocates Aditya Gupta, Vani Kaushik, Sunidhi Agrahari appeared for Google.

Standing counsel Maitreyee Jagat Joshi and Manisha Agrawal Narein, government panel counsel Bhawna and Nipun Jain along with advocates Ayush Kasana, Kushi, Shikha Yadav appeared for Department of Telecommunications and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.

[Read Order]