HC directs removal of content infringing Gavaskar, Kalyan’s personality rights
Former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar’s lawyer cited fake critical comments and submitted that his client’s personality rights were being infringed without his consent
The Delhi high court on Friday directed social media intermediaries to remove within seven days all content infringing the personality rights of former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar and Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan, including the unauthorised use of their names and photographs.
A bench of justice Manmeet PS Arora issued the order while dealing with the Gavaskar and Kalyan’s suit seeking protection of their personality rights.
Gavaskar’s lawyer cited fake critical comments on the Indian men’s cricket team coach Gautam Gambhir and other cricketers and submitted that his client’s personality rights were being infringed without his consent.
Kalyan’s lawyer submitted that they had written to the social media intermediaries to take down the infringing content, including AI videos on Google and fake association content on e-commerce platforms.
The court asked the social media companies to treat Gavaskar’s suit as a complaint under Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, and take necessary steps within seven days. “Plaintiff is directed to provide the intermediaries with specific URLs within 48 hours from today. The URLs may be provided through counsels who entered an appearance. The defendants 7, 10, and 11 [intermediaries] are directed to communicate their decision to the plaintiff within a week,” the court said in Gavaskar’s case.
For Kalyan, the bench directed the intermediaries to act on his complaint in seven days.
The court issued the direction a day after it asked social media intermediaries to take down content infringing on Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s personality rights in three days.
On November 27, the court said individuals must first approach social media platforms (intermediaries) to remove infringing or objectionable content (like deepfakes or personality right violations) before seeking court injunctions, establishing this as a statutory first step for urgent takedowns.
