Lock & Suspend Domains: Delhi High Court Prohibits Deepfake Content & Infringement Of Personality Rights Of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
The suit before the Delhi High Court was filed seeking a permanent injunction restraining infringement, violation of common law rights, misappropriation of personality/publicity rights and other ancillary reliefs.
The Delhi High Court has protected the personality rights of Spiritual Leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar by restraining the circulation of deep fake content unauthorizedly using his name, voice, facial expressions, persona and likeness. The High Court also ordered that the domains brought to the Court’s notice be locked and suspended.
The suit before the High Court was filed seeking a permanent injunction restraining infringement, passing off, violation of common law rights, misappropriation of personality/publicity rights, damages and other ancillary reliefs. The High Court was also considering an application filed under Order XXXIX Rule 1 and 2 CPC seeking an ex parte ad interim injunction against the defendants.
The Single Bench of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora held, “In view of the above, a prima facie case is made out in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendant no. 1. Balance of convenience is also in favour of the plaintiff, and irreparable harm will be cause to the plaintiff, if defendant no. 1’s are not restrained to publish/circulate the deepfake contents”, it stated.
“Defendant nos. 5 and 6, the Domain Name Registrars are directed to lock and suspend the domains mentioned at Paragraph no. 44 (sr. no. 18 and 21) within 72 hrs of being communicated a copy of this order by the Plaintiff. Defendant nos. 5 and 6 will file an affidavit of compliance within three (3) weeks. In this affidavit, Defendant Nos. 5 and 6 will also disclose all registrants’ details with the IP addresses as already directed in I.A. 20794/2025”, it ordered.
Senior Advocate Nikhil Sakhardande represented the Petitioner, while SPC Chetanya Puri represented the Respondent.
Factual Background
The plaintiff, a globally revered humanitarian leader, spiritual teacher and ambassador of peace and the founder of ‘The Art of Living’ foundation, got to know that the first defendant (John Doe) was circulating fake and fabricated videos of the plaintiff on the social media platform Facebook and on other independent websites, utilising advanced AI technologies. This also included ‘deepfake’ tools to digitally impersonate the plaintiff’s voice, facial expressions, persona and likeness, thereby creating a false impression amongst the world at large that the plaintiff was personally speaking, endorsing or promoting the content therein.
It was claimed that these ‘deepfake’ videos published under different usernames and pages between July 12, 2025 and August 8, 2025, falsely depicted the plaintiff as promoting alleged Ayurvedic or natural remedies for serious health conditions such as haemorrhoids, diabetes and chronic knee pain, rife with exaggerated and unfounded claims for instant and immediate cures for serious ailments.
Reasoning
Considering the averments made in the plaint and submissions made on behalf of the plaintiff, the Bench found that the first defendant (John Doe) was circulating deep fake contents, unauthorizedly using the name, voice, facial expressions, persona and likeness of the plaintiff.
The Bench restrained the first Defendant and other associates from infringing the plaintiff’s personality rights and publicity rights by utilizing and/or in any manner directly and/or indirectly using or exploiting or misappropriating the plaintiff’s name ‘Ravi Shankar’ or ‘Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’, his voice, image, likeness, his unique style of discourse and any other attribute which is exclusively identifiable with him, for any commercial and/or personal gain or otherwise.
The Bench also directed Facebook/Meta to remove/disable access to the specific pages, URLs, profiles, accounts, videos, photos, publishing any such morphed and infringing content, text, social media groups, and channels published on any platform owned, managed or controlled by them within 36 hours. “Defendant nos. 5 and 6, the Domain Name Registrars are directed to lock and suspend the domains mentioned at Paragraph no. 44 (sr. no. 18 and 21) within 72 hrs of being communicated a copy of this order by the Plaintiff”, it further ordered.
The Bench further asked the Department of Telecommunication and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to issue necessary notifications/directions to all ISPs and TSPs for blocking/removing access to the websites mentioned in the plaint.
Cause Title: Ravi Shankar v. John Doe (Case No.: CS(COMM) 889/2025)
Appearance:
Petitioner: Senior Advocate Nikhil Sakhardande, Advocates Pooja Tidke, Pranav Sarthi, Ashish Venugopal, Apoorva Singh, Prachi Dhingra
Respondent: SPC Chetanya Puri, Advocates Anand Awasthi, Nisha Puri, Varun Pathak, Yash Karunakaran, Tanuj Sharma