Facts
The actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan sued for a permanent injunction for infringement of copyright, performers' rights and personality and publicity rights, and for passing off. The defendants included a website posing as her official site, an APK site distributing apps with her images, sellers of merchandise bearing her name and photograph, an e-commerce platform, and an organisation naming her as chairman on its letterhead. They also included a chatbot site where users chatted with AI characters that impersonated her and produced sexually coloured remarks, and two YouTube channels publishing AI-generated deepfake videos. Google LLC was sued as owner of YouTube; two government departments were joined as proforma defendants to implement orders.
Question
At the interim stage, the question was whether the plaintiff had shown a prima facie case, whether the balance of convenience favoured her and whether she would suffer irreparable harm without an injunction. A further question was how personality rights apply to new uses such as AI-generated images, face morphing and chatbots that impersonate a person. The court considered whether these rights protect both a commercial interest and an interest linked to privacy and dignity. As some defendants were unidentified (John Doe), it also had to decide what to require of platforms and government authorities.
Decision
In his order of 9 September 2025, Justice Tejas Karia said personality rights rest on a person's autonomy to permit or refuse exploitation of their name, image and likeness. Unauthorised use may infringe both the right against commercial exploitation and the rights to privacy and dignity. Finding her name and images misused 'by employing technological tools, including Artificial Intelligence', he granted an ex parte interim injunction. Defendants may not use her name, the acronym 'ARB', her image or likeness through any technology including AI, generative AI, machine learning, deepfakes and face morphing. The e-commerce platform and Google must remove listed URLs within 72 hours and disclose subscriber details within seven days; the government must order blocking within seven days.
Why it matters
The order follows the Delhi High Court's line of personality-rights cases relied on by the plaintiff, such as Anil Kapoor (2023) and Jaikishan Kakubhai Saraf (2024), and expressly writes AI, generative AI, deepfakes and face morphing into the scope of the injunction. It is notable that chatbots impersonating a person are covered. The court linked the infringement to privacy and dignity as well as to commercial loss. The order is interim: it was made ex parte before any defendant had replied, with only Google's counsel present, and contains no ruling on the merits.
Related stages
The matter was listed for 15 January 2026; what happened at that hearing and later could not be verified for this entry.