The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed various social media platforms and e-commerce intermediaries to remove the remaining allegedly infringing content identified by cricketer Abhishek Sharma, while hearing his personality rights suit against unauthorised use of his name, image and identity.
During the hearing, Justice Jyoti Singh reviewed the status of the URLs identified by the plaintiff and noted that several posts had already been taken down following the filing of an additional affidavit. It directed the plaintiff to furnish a consolidated list containing only those URLs that remained accessible to avoid confusion.
The Court accepted the undertakings given by Meta and Amazon to remove the remaining content available on their respective platforms. During the hearing, counsel appearing for Meta submitted that only two posts remained available on its platforms and undertook to remove them. Taking note of the submissions, the Court directed the concerned intermediaries to remove the remaining identified content. The Bench also clarified that if the impugned content resurfaced through different hyperlinks, the defendants would remain bound by the injunction unless they sought appropriate modification from the Court. Observing that it was not inclined to examine disputes over fresh hyperlinks at this stage, the Court remarked:
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“Maybe not at this point in time. I will direct their takedown and I will enjoin the defendants as we usually do in the first order, unless there comes a modification application.”
On the issue of service, the Court directed issuance of summons to the identified defendants. It permitted service through social media handles wherever email addresses or physical addresses were unavailable, observing that such defendants could be served directly through their respective platform accounts.
The Court granted the defendants two weeks to comply with its directions. The matter has been directed to be placed before the Joint Registrar on August 11, 2026, for completion of pleadings and compliance, while the interim applications will be taken up on November 17, 2026.