Star Indian cricketer Abhishek Sharma has approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection of his personality rights. He has requested the court to stop the unauthorized use of his name, images and identity on online platforms, including through AI-generated content.
The case was heard by Justice Jyoti Singh, who reviewed several web links that Abhishek claimed were violating his personality rights. During the hearing, the Court also discussed how personality rights and defamation often overlap in cases involving online content.
Justice Singh said the Court could not issue an order without properly checking the evidence. She pointed out that the screenshots submitted by Abhishek did not match the details listed in the case documents.
“There is a real mess up here. You file an affidavit with a screenshot matching your table. The screenshot is way different from what you are showing. I can’t pass an order like this,” the judge told Abhishek’s lawyer.
The Court asked Abhishek to submit another affidavit with screenshots that correctly match the links and details mentioned in the case papers.
“I am not saying I am not inclined to, but I can’t pass an order this way,” the judge added.
In his petition, Abhishek has requested the removal of content that he says violates his personality rights, including AI-generated posts shared on social media.
During the hearing, advocate Varun Pathak, representing Meta Platforms, told the Court that two of the eight web links listed by Abhishek were no longer accessible. He also argued that one of the remaining links contained a post from a paparazzi account and might not amount to a violation of personality rights.
However, Abhishek’s lawyer disagreed, saying the content was created using artificial intelligence. He argued that one post falsely described Abhishek’s manager as his girlfriend and used an AI-generated image to create a misleading impression.
“What is it indicating? Is that he is crying over the shoulders of another and it is an AI-generated image. It isn’t a paparazzi issue. He is clicked with the manager and then given a different colour to it using artificial intelligence,” the lawyer said.