Delhi High Court protects Sunil Gavaskar's personality rights from AI and deepfake misuse
The Delhi High Court has delivered a landmark ruling protecting cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar’s personality rights, restraining several websites and online platforms from using his name, images or likeness for commercial purposes without permission. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora also banned the use of Gavaskar’s personality through artificial intelligence and deepfake technology, and ordered obscene content featuring him to be removed from the internet. The decision marks an important legal recognition of sportspersons’ rights in India’s digital age.
Court orders takedown of unauthorized content
On December 24, Justice Arora passed comprehensive orders protecting Gavaskar from unauthorized commercial exploitation across social media and e-commerce platforms. The court directed that URLs containing offensive material, infringing posts, videos and related content must be taken down by websites within 72 hours. If the websites fail to comply, the court ordered social media intermediaries to remove the content themselves.
The high court has listed the matter for further hearing on May 22, 2026. When the court convened on Tuesday, Gavaskar’s legal team informed the judge that while some content had been removed following earlier directions, other infringing material remained online.
Protection against AI and deepfake misuse
A significant aspect of the ruling is the court’s restraint on using Gavaskar’s personality traits through artificial intelligence and deepfake technology. This addresses growing concerns about how public figures’ images and voices can be manipulated using advanced technology for commercial gain or to create misleading content.
The order also specifically addressed obscene content that had been uploaded to the internet featuring or attributed to Gavaskar, directing its immediate removal.
Gavaskar’s statement on the ruling
In a statement following the court’s decision, Gavaskar emphasized the importance of the judgment for all athletes in India. He said the order “marks an important judicial recognition of a sportsperson’s personality and publicity rights in India, particularly in cases of unauthorised attribution, digital dissemination and commercial exploitation across social media and e-commerce platforms.”
The right to publicity, commonly known as personality rights, gives individuals the legal authority to protect, control and profit from their own image, name or likeness. For celebrities and sports stars, this protection becomes crucial as their fame makes them targets for unauthorized commercial use.
Earlier court directions to social media platforms
On December 12, the Delhi High Court had directed social media intermediaries to act within seven days on Gavaskar’s complaint. The court asked Gavaskar’s legal team to first approach the platforms with specific grievances before taking further judicial action.
Justice Arora directed social media intermediaries to treat Gavaskar’s lawsuit as a formal complaint under the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, and take necessary action within seven days. However, when the matter returned to court, it was clear that compliance had been only partial, leading to the stronger orders issued on December 24.
Growing trend of personality rights cases
Gavaskar joins a rapidly growing list of Indian celebrities who have approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights in recent months. The court has become the preferred forum for such cases as digital exploitation of famous personalities has increased dramatically.
Recent cases include Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn, R Madhavan and Salman Khan. Filmmaker Karan Johar, singer Kumar Sanu, Telugu actors Akkineni Nagarjuna and NTR Rao Junior, spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, podcaster Raj Shamani, and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan have also sought similar protection.
The Delhi High Court has granted interim relief in most of these cases, recognizing the urgent need to protect public figures from unauthorized commercial exploitation in the digital space. This trend reflects both the increasing awareness among celebrities about their legal rights and the growing problem of image misuse on social media and e-commerce platforms.
The Gavaskar ruling sets an important precedent for how Indian courts will handle personality rights in the age of AI, deepfakes and widespread digital content creation.