The Delhi High Court has granted actor Tabassum Jamal Hashmi (Tabu) an ex parte interim injunction against the unauthorised use and exploitation of her name, image, voice, photographs and other personality attributes, including through AI, deepfakes, face morphing and other technologies.
Tabu had approached the Court alleging widespread misuse of her personality and publicity rights. The suit concerned, among other things, an Instagram account allegedly offering bookings for her appearances without authorisation, websites selling merchandise and wallpapers using her photographs, and online publications carrying a false and fabricated statement purportedly made by her. It was submitted that the impugned content continued to be circulated despite clarification from Tabu’s official team that she had never made the statement.
The plaintiff further alleged that AI-generated obscene images, videos and GIFs had been created by manipulating and editing excerpts from her films, interviews and public appearances. According to the plaint, such content was being circulated online to attract viewership and generate unlawful commercial gains, causing serious injury to her reputation and goodwill.
Justice Jyoti Singh held that Tabu had made out a prima facie case for an ex parte ad interim injunction and that the balance of convenience lay in her favour, with a likelihood of irreparable harm if protection was not granted. The Court noted that her name, stage name ‘Tabu’, image, voice and likeness are uniquely associated with her and carry substantial commercial value.
The Court observed that personality rights have consistently been recognised by the Delhi High Court and held that unauthorised commercial use of a person’s name, image or other distinctive attributes can infringe those rights and result in dilution of an individual’s identity and unearned commercial gain. It further noted that AI-generated videos using deliberately edited content to sensationalise material and divert traffic for monetary gains can cause irreparable harm to goodwill, reputation and commercial value.
Accordingly, the Court restrained Defendants 1 to 7 from using, exploiting or misappropriating Tabu’s personality/publicity attributes, including her name, stage name, voice, signatures, images, photographs and movie stills, for personal or commercial gains without her consent. The restraint expressly covers the use of Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, Machine Learning, deepfakes, face morphing and GIFs, across websites, mobile applications, social media, the Metaverse and other media.
The Court also directed the concerned platforms to act against the identified content. India Herald was directed to remove the allegedly false statement within three days, while Google, Meta, X, Reddit, eBay, GoDaddy and Hosting Concepts were directed to take down or disable specified URLs/domains within prescribed timelines. Certain platforms were additionally directed to disclose basic subscriber information and IP log details to the plaintiff.
The suit has been instituted as a commercial suit, with summons issued to the defendants.
