The Delhi High Court has directed the removal of certain links and listings on internet and e-commerce platforms which were alleged to infringe upon the personality rights of actor Hrithik Roshan. The actor had approached the court seeking to restrain unauthorized commercial use of his name, image, voice, likeness and related personal attributes. The relief granted by the court was selective: while the court ordered the takedown of URLs that allegedly traded on his persona for commercial gain, it declined, at the preliminary stage, to order the removal of fan pages and Instagram pages devoted to him.
In its order, Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora acknowledged the claim that third parties were using Roshan’s images and name for profit—such as merchandise (bags, clothing, etc.)—and were also employing his videos for dance tutorials without authorization. The court ordered removal of the “infringing” URLs, but held that content hosted on fan pages could not be removed merely on an ex parte application unless evidence showed commercial exploitation or defamation. The court remarked that fan pages that use the actor’s image in a non-commercial manner, such as for recreation or admiration, do not automatically infringe personality rights. It emphasized that the actor’s performances and images, already in the public domain, may be repurposed for non-commercial uses like tutorials and that such use cannot be proscribed at a prima facie stage.
The court also noted that it was not presently persuaded to take down fan clubs or pages, as the actor had not shown at this stage that they were causing harm or profiting unlawfully. The judge observed that although commercialization, obscene or morphed uses might warrant takedown, casual fan usage without evidence of wrongdoing could not be summarily removed without affording the concerned persons a hearing. The court directed that the defendants provide details of the allegedly infringing URLs and further evidence in support of their claims. Meanwhile, the court refrained from ordering removal of fan pages, reserving those questions for later adjudication.
The High Court thus struck a balance between protecting an individual’s personality rights and safeguarding freedom of expression in the form of non-commercial fan pages. It allowed more intrusive action against direct monetization of the actor’s persona while preserving room for fan clubs to continue within legal constraints.
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