The Delhi High Court has protected the personality rights of India cricket legend Yuvraj Singh and restrained the unauthorised use of his name, image and other personality attributes by third parties for commercial or personal gain, including the sale of merchandise and the creation of AI-generated or deepfake content.
Justice Jyoti Singh, in an interim order passed on the former cricketer’s suit, observed that Yuvraj is among the country’s most decorated, recognised and globally renowned cricketers, having represented India across all formats for 17 years.
The court said those violating his personality and privacy rights needed to be “dealt with a heavy hand”.
In the order dated July 29, Justice Singh restrained the exploitation or misappropriation
of the names “Yuvraj Singh” and “Yuvi”, as well as the cricketer’s image, voice, likeness and other personality attributes.
Yuvraj contended that, apart from the unauthorised sale of merchandise bearing his personality attributes, several social media accounts were publishing and disseminating AI-generated images and videos purportedly depicting him in fabricated and fictional scenarios, thereby damaging his reputation and goodwill.
His counsel told the court that the objectionable content included religiously insensitive posts, videos portraying aggressive and violent behaviour towards another cricketer, and posts containing vulgar and abusive language.
Directing Meta Platforms and other online platforms to remove the offending content, the court observed, “There can be no dispute that plaintiff’s stature inherently grants him proprietary rights over his personality and associated attributes and gives him the exclusive rights to use the personality attributes for commercial purposes and consequently, the right to protect various attributes of his persona from unauthorized use or exploitation by third-parties.”
“The contents of the impugned AI-generated posts and deep fake videos are tarnishing the immense goodwill and reputation of the plaintiff, garnered over the years with hard work and stellar performances in the field of cricket as well as his contribution to social welfare and lowering his image and standing in the eyes of the public,” the court concluded.
Several public figures, including actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Salman Khan, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, podcaster Raj Shamani, Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan and cricketer Abhishek Sharma have previously approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights.
The high court had granted interim relief in those cases.
With PTI Inputs
