Madras High Court passes order protecting Kamal Haasan’s personality rights

The Madras High Court on Monday, January 12, granted actor-politician Kamal Haasan major relief in the personality rights case, restraining illegal use of his image and commercial merchandising.

The court ruled that

Haasan

, a Rajya Sabha member, has made a strong prima facie case for interim relief, citing the need to protect his dignity and commercial interests from unauthorised online activity.

Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy directed respondents to refrain from creating or circulating false images of Haasan and from selling merchandise bearing his image or name without consent.

"Respondents are restrained from creating false images of the plaintiff and depicting the same through any media until the next date of hearing. Respondents are also restrained from selling merchandise wearing the plaintiff’s image or name, including screen names attributed to the plaintiff, without the plaintiff’s consent or endorsement until the next date of hearing," the court noted.

The court, however, clarified that satire and permissible creative expressions were allowed. "This order will not stand in the way of caricature, satire or other forms of permissible creative expression," the judge noted.

The court was told that the infringers were primarily unidentified, and hence the suit was structured as a John Doe action.

This comes after the 71-year-old actor filed a suit to protect his personality rights and prevent commercial exploitation.

Haasan's legal team, led by Senior Advocate Satish Parasaran, stated that the move was taken to defend both dignity and financial interests that were being harmed by unauthorised online activity.

It was alleged that the misuse had two major forms: financial exploitation of the plaintiff's persona and insulting or hurtful content shared on social media.

As per a report in Bar and Bench, the pleadings and materials presented to the Court were considered to show a clear case of illegal monetisation of the plaintiff's individuality.