Delhi High Court Safeguards Sunil Gavaskar's Rights Against Unauthorized Use

Court Protects Gavaskar's Personality Rights

New Delhi: On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court issued an interim injunction to protect the personality and publicity rights of former Indian cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar. The court has mandated that social media platforms and e-commerce sites remove unauthorized content and merchandise that exploit his name, image, and likeness.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, presiding over a single-judge bench, instructed platforms such as Meta and X Corp to eliminate any infringing URLs that falsely attribute statements to Gavaskar within a 72-hour timeframe.

The court emphasized that if users do not comply with the removal of infringing content within the specified period, the platforms must restrict access to such material.

Additionally, Justice Arora ordered e-commerce platforms to remove listings of products sold under Gavaskar's name without proper authorization. If sellers do not act within 72 hours, the platforms are required to delist those items.

This interim relief was granted in response to a lawsuit filed by Gavaskar, who sought protection against unauthorized exploitation of his personality rights on social media and online marketplaces.

The former cricketer claimed that numerous social media accounts were attributing false quotes to him, while various online vendors were selling counterfeit autographed merchandise falsely linked to him.

During a previous hearing, Justice Arora had instructed Gavaskar to submit the offending URLs to Google, Meta, and X, while directing the intermediaries to respond to his request under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, within a week.

Gavaskar's case is part of a growing trend where high-profile individuals are asserting their personality and publicity rights in the Delhi High Court.

Recently, several celebrities, including actor Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (Jr NTR), spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, actors Nagarjuna, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, filmmaker Karan Johar, and podcaster Raj Shamani, have successfully sought court protection against unauthorized use of their identities, likenesses, or AI-generated replicas.

The court has scheduled Gavaskar's case for further proceedings on May 22, 2026.