‘Denying injunction will harm Aishwarya’s right to dignity’

The Delhi High Court has granted Aishwarya Rai Bachchan an interim injunction to protect her personality and publicity rights, ruling that the unauthorised use of her name, image, or likeness could cause commercial harm and affect her right to live with dignity.In her petition, Aishwarya sought to restrain certain websites, companies, and individuals from infringing her copyright and performer’s rights, and from misappropriating her persona for commercial gain. The court noted that she had established a strong prima facie case, and that the ‘balance of convenience’ is in her favour. The order restrained defendants from exploiting Aishwarya’s personal attributes in any form – including through AI, deepfakes, face morphing, or any other tech without authorisation.

The court said such misuse would inevitably mislead the public into believing that she had endorsed products or services.“Since Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is one of the most celebrated personalities in the Indian entertainment industry, who has served various brands as ambassador – she has garnered significant goodwill and reputation such that the members of the public repose their trust in the brands endorsed by her. Any infringement of the her personality rights, while causing confusion amongst the members of the public regarding endorsement or sponsorship of a product or service by her, will also lead to dilution of her reputation and goodwill”“Balance of convenience lies in favour of the plaintiff and if an injunction is not granted in the present case, it will lead to an irreparable loss/harm to the plaintiff and her family, not only financially, but also with respect to her right to live with dignity” — Excerpts from Justice Tejas Karia’s orderWhat the HC directed● Block and disable all the URLs● Take down, remove, disable and block the identified URLs within 72 hours of receiving the notice – including the names, email address, contact number, IP logs and registration details of the owners, operators, sellers of goods and/ or services through the URLs as identified● The HC has directed Google and an e-commerce platform to submit subscriber information in a sealed cover● The HC has also asked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block and disable the URLs in question