Aishwarya Rai moves the Supreme Court in Delhi over personality rights

New -delhi: Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan approached the Delhi High Court to protect her personality rights, claiming that rogue sites use her name and image without authorization. The petition, filed against aishwaryaworld.com and other offenders, argued that the unauthorized use of her persona is part of a greater tendency of online fraud that utilizes families’ identities. The hearing was adjourned until January, but the court is likely to provide interim orders against offenders. Judge Tejas Karia said that a detailed written order will be issued to limit the offenses and protect the rights of Rai. “There are only 151 URLs that will form a part of the order as far as you are concerned … We will give orders against each of the defendants because prayers are wide. But we will provide orders separately,” Justice Karia noted. The plea of ​​Rai seeks order to block the website and other offenders, remove the infringement on URLs, and directions to intermediaries such as Google and YouTube to take off illegal content. She also requested freedom to expand the order to ‘John Doe’ defendants – unidentified parties that could house similar infringing material in the future. ‘John Doe’ is a type of court order issued against unknown or unidentified parties. In cases of intellectual property and personality rights, this enables a celebrity, brand or copyright holder not only to stop the well-known offenders, but also future or unidentified offenders who can abuse their name, image or content. Rai’s lawyer Sandeep Sethi told the court that aishwaryaworld.com falsely claims to be her “only authorized and official website”, without authorization. Sethi said the platform published personal information, unauthorized images, and even sold goods, such as T-shirts priced up to £ 3,100, and mugs with her appearance, creating a misleading impression of approval. Sethi also argued that Rai’s image is used in fraudulent schemes, including a so -called ‘Wealth Fund’ that posted her photo on his letterhead and named her as chairman to raise money. It is alleged that letters in her name were circulated to deceive third parties, although she had no connection to the entity. Rai’s senior lawyer also pointed to the generated and ai-generated pornographic content in which her appearance was superior. Screen shots of manufactured chat messages and manipulated images depicting her in abusive ways were presented to the court. Sethi calls it a ‘derogatory, defamatory and direct assault’ about Rai’s dignity. The advocates emphasized that Ai-generated Deepfakes poses a new dimension of risk of familiarity, violates privacy and does reputation and financial damage. Earlier, the statements of the Delhi High Court protected in similar cases Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff. In these decisions, the court limited the abuse of fame names, votes and images and recognized personality rights as part of the fundamental right to dignity and privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution. Last year, the Delhi High Court banned the unauthorized use of Jackie Shroff’s Sobriquets “Jackie” and “Jaggu Dada,” as well as his catch “Bhidu”. Similarly, in 2023, the court protected the iconic “Jhakaas” of Anil Kapoor. In both cases, the commercial exploitation of their names, votes and images were banned without permission. Personality rights enable individuals to protect their identity in the context of privacy and property rights. For celebrities, it extends to their names, images or voices, which appear unauthorized commercial use. Although India has no independent personality rights law, the Supreme Court and High Courts acknowledge it in terms of section 21. Fameries may also register their names, votes and signatures under the Trademarks Act, 1999. Legal experts told Mint earlier that personality rights are decisive to protect families from fraud and personality.