The Delhi High Court said it will order the protection of actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s publicity and personality rights. Justice Tejas Karia pointed at a possible injunction that would not allow the use of her images without authorisation. Though the judge noted that though the prayers were wide, orders are likely against each defendant.
The actor had moved court for immediate judicial intervention against unauthorized exploitation of her image, persona, and likeness including AI-generated and manipulated content. The court, responding to her plea, verbally intimated that an ad-interim injunction would likely be issued to restrain the offending entities from further misuse.
Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi, representing Bachchan, framed her motion as a quest to uphold her publicity and personality rights, a vital facet of personal dignity recognized under Indian jurisprudence. He invoked vivid examples of infringement, pointing to websites distributing her wallpapers without consent, vendors vending T-shirts printed with her likeness, and platforms soliciting payment under the pretext of her endorsement. Of particular concern, he noted, were images generated or morphed through AI technologies none of which were authorized by the actress.
More alarming, Sethi argued, were intimate visuals that were entirely fictitious, deployed by certain people of unknown identity (referred to colloquially as “John Doe” entities) to market items as mundane as coffee mugs. These acts, he urged, not only stripped Ms. Rai of control over her public persona but commodified her image in disturbing and exploitative ways.
Sethi further anchored his pleas in precedent, referencing the Delhi High Court’s 2023 ruling in Anil Kapoor’s favor, which upheld the inviolability of a celebrity’s image against unauthorized use. He emphasized that such protections are indispensable in an era when digital technologies can replicate a public figure’s likeness with unprecedented ease.
During the hearing, legal counsel for Google invoked a past order from the Andaz Apna Apna case, highlighting that links infringing personality rights were previously delisted following court direction. In response, the bench directed the removal of 151 URLs linked to the current case and indicated plans to issue individual injunctions tailored to each defendant.
The court also announced that full orders would soon be uploaded to its docket. The next hearing will be on January 15, 2026.