Delhi High Court directs social media firms to act on Pawan Kalyan's personality rights complaint within a week. The Andhra Pradesh Deputy CM seeks protection from unauthorized use of his persona, including AI-generated content and deepfakes.
Delhi High Court's Directive
The Delhi High Court on Friday directed major social media intermediaries to act on a complaint filed by Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and actor Pawan Kalyan regarding alleged violations of his personality rights. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora instructed the intermediaries to take a decision on the complaint within one week, emphasising that statutory grievance-redressal mechanisms must be utilised before the Court intervenes. The Court further directed the plaintiff to submit all infringing links within two days and stated that if the intermediaries have any reservations, they may communicate them directly to the plaintiff. The matter will be taken up again on December 22.
Senior Advocate J Sai Deepak, appearing for Kalyan, informed the Court that despite earlier communication issued in accordance with directions from the Ajay Devgan personality-rights case, the intermediaries had not provided meaningful responses, and several infringing materials remained accessible online.
Justice Arora clarified that the plaintiff may submit specific URLs of the offending content directly to the intermediaries and that they are required to take necessary action within the stipulated period. The judge added that the Court would resume consideration after ten days to review the intermediaries' response.
Pawan Kalyan's Plea and Political Clout
Separately, Pawan Kalyan has moved the Delhi High Court seeking urgent protection of his personality and publicity rights, alleging misuse of his name, image and voice through artificial-intelligence-generated content and other unauthorised digital activities. He has sought directions restraining various defendants from creating, circulating or monetising any content that imitates or exploits his persona without consent.
Kalyan, who has been serving as the 11th Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh since June 2024, contends that such misuse harms his reputation and infringes upon his exclusive rights in his identity. His plea comes amid growing concerns about deepfakes, synthetic media and AI-driven impersonation affecting public figures across sectors.
Beyond his political stature, Kalyan remains a towering presence in Telugu cinema, known for his distinctive style, powerful screen persona, and fiercely loyal fan base across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. His influence surged during the 2024 General and State Assembly elections, during which he played a key role in shaping the alliance between the Jana Sena Party, Telugu Desam Party and Bharatiya Janata Party. By limiting the number of seats his party contested, he strengthened the coalition, resulting in a sweeping victory in which the Jana Sena Party won all 21 MLA seats and 2 MP seats it contested. Kalyan himself secured a commanding win from the Pithapuram constituency.
Expanding Jurisprudence on Personality Rights
His petition comes at a time when the Delhi High Court is expanding jurisprudence around personality rights, particularly in relation to digital misuse. The Court has recently granted strong protection to public figures such as Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Nagarjuna, Anil Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan and digital creator Raj Shamani. These decisions reaffirm that individuals retain exclusive control over the commercial and digital use of their persona.
At the same time, the Court has expressed concern about emerging threats such as deepfakes, voice cloning and synthetic visuals, noting that they infringe not only upon publicity rights but also upon an individual's dignity and privacy, while reinforcing that satire, artistic expression, commentary and news reporting must remain unaffected. (ANI)
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