NEW DELHI: U Delhi High Court On Tuesday he examined the evolution of the scope of personality rights while hearing a lawsuit filed by Indian cricketer Abhishek Sharma, who sought protection against the alleged unauthorized use of his name, image and likeness on online platforms, including AI-generated content.The matter came before Justice Jyoti Singh, who scrutinized several web links identified by Sharma as allegedly violating his personality rights. During the hearing, the Court also made significant observations about the increasingly complex relationship between personality rights and defamation in the digital age.
Delhi HC flags overlap between personality rights and defamation
While considering the rival submissions, Justice Singh observed that disputes involving online content often blur the distinction between defamation and personality rights.“We also find this every day where there is a fine line between defamation and personality rights. It is in a flux. There is some overlap. Defamatory matter can have the element of personality rights,” Judge Singh observed.The Court’s observations came as it considered whether the disputed online content merely involved objective speech or amounted to an unauthorized exploitation of Sharma’s identity through artificial intelligence.
The dispute centers on AI-altered images
Appearing for Meta, lawyer Varun Pathak informed the Court that of the eight URLs currently under consideration, two were no longer accessible. Referring to one of the remaining links, Pathak stated that it appeared to be a “paparazzi” post and, in his view, was not a violation of personality rights.Sharma’s lawyer, however, strongly disagreed with that characterization.Advocate Thakur, appearing for the cricketer, argued that the case did not involve an ordinary paparazzi photograph. Instead, he submitted that an original image of Sharma with his manager was allegedly manipulated with artificial intelligence by altering its appearance and context, resulting in a misleading AI-generated image.According to the plaintiff, the digitally altered image falsely conveyed a different impression and was an unauthorized use of Sharma’s personality and identity.Responding to the Court’s observations, Pathak argued that false or objective statements about an individual ordinarily fall within the realms of defamation or privacy rather than personality rights.He also submitted that the expansion of personality rights to include all adverse online content creates serious practical difficulties for intermediaries.According to Meta, Sharma had initially approached the Court with about 25 URLs, but the number of allegedly infringing links later increased to nearly 4,000.Pathak argued that accepting such an expansive interpretation would in effect require intermediaries to “clean the internet” of content critical of the plaintiff, regardless of whether it actually violated personality rights.
Matter posted for further hearing
After hearing both sides, the Delhi High Court adjourned the matter till July 9, observing that some issues related to the lawsuit required attention.The suit is among a growing number of personality rights cases before the Delhi High Court involving celebrities seeking protection against unauthorized commercial use or AI-driven manipulation of their names, pictures, likenesses and identities.With the rapid rise of artificial intelligence tools capable of generating lifelike images and videos, courts are increasingly being asked to examine claims involving deepfakes, digitally altered content and the unauthorized use of public figures.
