NEW DELHI: The Delhi Excessive Courtroom has strongly condemned the unauthorized use of Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s identify, picture, and persona, stating that such exploitation with out consent not solely leads to business loss but in addition harms her dignity and repute.The courtroom granted an interim injunction, restraining a number of web sites, firms, and unidentified people from misusing her id through digital platforms and AI-driven instruments.
Justice Tejas Karia, presiding over the case, underscored that the unauthorized use of a celeb’s id—together with identify, picture, likeness, or signature—with out consent may cause business hurt and infringe upon their proper to dignity. The courtroom noticed that the misuse of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s persona created confusion, falsely implied endorsement, and diluted her repute and goodwill.To curb these violations, the courtroom imposed broad restrictions on the defendants. They have been restrained from infringing on Rai’s character and publicity rights, ethical rights, or passing off items and companies as endorsed by her. The order additionally barred the creation, sharing, or dissemination of AI-generated, deepfake, morphed, or manipulated content material throughout any medium, and prohibited utilizing her persona for business merchandise, commercials, or on-line platforms.The bench directed Google LLC and varied e-commerce platforms to take away or disable recognized URLs inside 72 hours of discover. Moreover, the Ministry of Electronics and Info Know-how (MeitY) and the Division of Know-how have been instructed to subject instructions to dam such URLs. Google and the platforms have been additionally ordered to submit, in a sealed cowl, all accessible Primary Subscriber Info of the offenders concerned.Aishwarya Rai was represented by Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi, together with advocates Pravin Anand, Ameet Naik, Madhu Gadodia, Dhruv Anand, and Udita Patro. The courtroom acknowledged Rai’s stature as certainly one of India’s most celebrated entertainers and a trusted ambassador for international manufacturers, noting that misuse of her persona by AI instruments like deepfakes and face morphing was unauthorized and dangerous.Senior Advocate Sethi detailed the violations, citing unauthorized merchandise together with mugs, T-shirts, and drinkware, in addition to fraudulent entities resembling Aishwarya Nation Wealth, which falsely listed Rai as Chairperson. He additionally highlighted the circulation of obscene, morphed, and AI-generated content material, calling it a gross violation of her dignity and a deceptive tactic associating her with unrelated ventures.Google’s counsel, Advocate Mamta Rani, defined that the platform may act solely on particular flagged URLs. Justice Karia acknowledged this limitation and said that whereas a unified order can be ultimate, particular person injunctions could be mandatory relying on the character and extent of every defendant’s violations. The courtroom clarified that Rai may submit particular URLs for takedown or pursue motion by the Blocking and Screening Directions (BSI) course of for complete enforcement.The matter has been scheduled for additional proceedings on January 15, 2026. In the meantime, the interim injunction will proceed to guard Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s character and publicity rights.(With inputs from company)