DELHI HIGH COURT PROTECTS CRICKETER ABHISHEK SHARMA’S PERSONALITY RIGHTS; ORDERS TAKEDOWN OF DEFAMATORY AI CONTENT

NEW DELHI | JULY 9, 2026
In a significant ruling addressing the intersection of intellectual property, celebrity rights, and artificial intelligence, the Delhi High Court on Thursday issued summons and granted an interim injunction in a suit filed by Indian cricketer Abhishek Sharma. The Court has directed social media giants and e-commerce platforms to immediately remove defamatory, obscene, and AI-generated content that exploits the cricketer's personality rights without authorization.

The matter was heard by a Single-Judge Bench comprising Justice Jyoti Singh, who scrutinized the infringing links and observed that the Court would strictly injunct the defendants to curb the misuse of the athlete's likeness and identity.

Background of the Suit
The petitioner, professional cricketer Abhishek Sharma, moved the High Court seeking robust protection over his "personality rights"—a subset of intellectual property law that grants public figures the exclusive right to control the commercial exploitation of their name, image, likeness, voice, and distinct characteristics.

The suit was triggered by a surge in defamatory and artificially engineered content circulating across mainstream digital channels. According to the plaintiff's counsel, several social media posts utilized advanced AI generation tools to fabricate realistic images of Sharma, accompanied by highly misleading and explicit captions. In one notable instance highlighted during the proceedings, an AI-altered post falsely depicted the cricketer alongside his professional manager, misleadingly framing her as his romantic partner and distorting his private life.

Beyond social media, the suit also targeted e-commerce platforms where unauthorized merchandise and product listings were leveraging Sharma's identity for unauthorized commercial gain.

Court Proceedings and Directions
During Thursday's hearing, Justice Jyoti Singh affirmed the court's stance on protecting public personalities from digital distortion, stating, "At this point in time, I will direct their takedown and I will injunct the defendants as we usually do."

Advocate Gaurav Bahl, appearing alongside a legal team for Sharma, informed the Bench that a significant number of the offensive Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) had already been successfully dismantled in compliance with the court’s previous evidentiary directives.

Representing Meta Platforms (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), Advocate Varun Pathak submitted that the tech conglomerate had actively purged the infringing materials, noting that only two offending URLs remained active on Instagram. Meta assured the Bench that these remaining links would be permanently extracted within a standard legal window.
The Court further authorized the issuance of formal legal notices and summons to the unnamed or untraceable creators of the content directly via their digital profiles, handles, and associated physical addresses.

The Legal Context of Personality Rights in India
While "personality rights" or "publicity rights" are not explicitly codified under a singular statutory act in Indian law, they are heavily protected through judicial precedents under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution (Right to Privacy and Dignity) and common law remedies against "passing off" (preventing unauthorized commercial misrepresentation).

This case follows a growing legal trend in India—previously invoked by public figures like actors Amitabh Bachchan and Anil Kapoor—seeking omnibus injunctions against the unauthorized commercialization of their personas. However, Sharma's case highlights an evolving judicial frontier: the direct weaponization of generative AI and deepfakes to damage a celebrity's professional reputation.

The Delhi High Court has scheduled the matter for its next comprehensive hearing on November 17, 2026.
Case Title: Abhishek Sharma v. Unknown Entities & Others
Bench: Justice Jyoti Singh
Discription: The Delhi High Court has protected Indian cricketer Abhishek Sharma’s personality rights by ordering the immediate takedown of unauthorized, defamatory, and AI-generated content.
Presided over by Justice Jyoti Singh, the court issued summons to multiple defendants exploiting Sharma's likeness. The lawsuit was filed after social media accounts used generative AI to create deepfakes and misleading captions—including a fabricated post misrepresenting his manager as his girlfriend. Furthermore, unauthorized merchandise listings were discovered on major e-commerce platforms.

During the hearing, Meta Platforms confirmed that nearly all flagged URLs on its sites had been successfully removed, promising a swift cleanup of the remaining links. This case highlights a critical judicial shift as courts increasingly invoke personality rights to protect public figures against AI distortion and deepfakes.