NEW DELHI: The: Delhi High Court on Tuesday examined the evolving scope of personality rights while hearing a case filed by Indian cricketer Abhishek Sharma, seeking 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 important observations on the increasingly complex relationship between the right to personality and defamation in the digital age.
Delhi HC flags overlap between personality rights and defamation
While considering the opposing submissions, Justice Singh observed that disputes involving online content often blur the distinction between defamation and personality rights.“We also see it every day where there is a thin line between defamation and personality rights. It is in a flux. There is a slight overlap. Something defamatory can have an element of personality rights,” said Justice Singh.The Court’s comments came while considering whether the impugned online content merely involved indecent speech or amounted to an unauthorized exploitation of Sharma’s identity by artificial intelligence.
The dispute centers around the AI-altered image
Appearing for Meta, advocate Varun Pathak informed the Court that of the eight URLs currently under consideration, two are defunct. Referring to one of the remaining links, Pathak submitted that it appears to be a “paparazzi type” post and, in his view, does not amount to a violation of personality rights.Sharma’s counsel, however, strongly disagrees with that attitude.Advocate Thakur, appearing for the cricketer, argued that the case did not involve an ordinary paparazzi photo. Instead, he submitted that an original image of Sharma with his manager was allegedly manipulated using artificial intelligence by changing its appearance and context, resulting in a misleading AI-generated image.According to the plaintiff, the digitally altered image falsely conveys a different impression and amounts to unauthorized use of Sharma’s personality and identity.Responding to the Court’s observations, Pathak argued that false or negative statements about an individual generally fall within the domains of defamation or privacy rather than personality rights.He further submitted that the expansion of personality rights claims to cover all objectionable content online would create serious practical difficulties for mediators.According to Meta, Sharma 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 a broad interpretation would effectively require intermediaries to “clean the internet” of content critical of the plaintiff, regardless of whether it actually violates personality rights.
The matter is posted for further hearing
After hearing both sides, the Delhi High Court deferred further consideration of the matter till July 9, observing that certain issues related to the complaint required attention.The suit is one of 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, photographs, likenesses and identities.With the rapid rise of artificial intelligence tools capable of creating realistic images and videos, courts are increasingly being asked to examine claims involving deepfakes, digitally altered content and the unauthorized use of public personalities.