Personality Rights Are Shield For Women Against Privacy Violations: Bombay High Court Orders Removal Of AI Deepfake Content On Shilpa Shetty
The Bombay High Court was considering an application by the actress seeking interim protection from AI deepfakes which were being circulated across online platforms.
While reaffirming that personality rights are treated as a shield for women against privacy violations, the Bombay High Court has granted relief to actress Shilpa Shetty by ordering the takedown of all links, posts and websites circulating AI-generated deepfake content and unlawfully infringing her privacy rights.
The High Court was considering an application by the actress seeking interim protection from AI deepfakes which were being circulated across online platforms.
The Single Bench of Justice Advait M. Sethna held, “It may be observed that, without even going into the nuances of personality rights of the Plaintiff, the Courts have treated such rights as a shield for women against privacy violations especially in the context of digital malignment and AI generated content. To reconstruct a person’s identity without consent is a violation of their digital personhood. This appears to be the case here.
Advocate Sana Khan represented the Applicant, while Advocate N. Pathak represented the Respondent.
Factual Background
The applicant claimed that unknown and unscrupulous persons have, without her consent, authority, or licence, used her photographs and visual depictions to generate and circulate obscene and sexually explicit deepfake content created through artificial intelligence, which squarely falls within the category of "deepfakes, face morphing and/or GIFs". The applicant raised the concern that this unauthorised creation and dissemination of obscene content purporting to feature the Applicant amounts to a grave violation of her personality rights and respect as a woman. The exploitation was claimed to be continuous and ongoing, with new obscene deepfake images being created and circulated daily across online platforms, thereby compounding the harm with each passing day.
As per the applicant, the persistent misuse of her likeness and other indicia of her personality necessitated urgent ad-interim and interim protection. The applicant thus sought an order directing the Defendants to remove all infringing content that they had uploaded, as well as the infringing URLs identified by the Applicant. The applicant further sought that, pending the hearing and final disposal, the Defendants be ordered and directed to block access to and suspend all infringing content that has been uploaded, as well as the infringing URLs as identified by the Applicant.
Reasoning
On a perusal of some photos/pictures tendered by the plaintiff, the Bench noted that the same appeared to be, prima facie, deepfakes generated using AI. “The photos as presented, prima facie would tarnish her public image which ought to be deprecated”, it stated.
The Court kept the issue of personality rights available under the Copyright Act open for adjudication before the regular Court.
The Bench stated, “No person much less a woman can be portrayed in a fashion which affects her fundamental right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution and that too without her knowledge and/or consent. This would include her right to live with dignity, which cannot be compromised in any manner whatsoever.”
The Bench was of the view that such blatant violations, if found to be true/genuine, by misusing technology and AI, ought to be nipped in the bud. “A person’s much less a woman’s dignity cannot be publicly maligned or defamed that too without consent which is the sine qua non for such publications. Artificial Intelligence and technology are a boon in today’s contemporary times to be employed to ensure speedier and efficient implementation of the laws, and not as a handle of its misuse”, the order read.
The Bench thus directed all the Defendants to delete the URLs. “The Defendant Nos.26 and 27 i.e. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) respectively, who are also duly served, are directed to pull down all links, posts and websites which unlawfully infringe the privacy rights of the Applicant-Plaintiff”, it further ordered.
Cause Title: Shilpa Shetty Kundra v. Getoutlive.in (Commercial IP Suit (ST) No. 38338 Of 2025)
Appearance
Applicant: Advocates Sana Khan, Rashmi Raghavan
Respondent: Advcoate N. Pathak, Sai Krishna & Associates, Advocates Amishi Sodani, Charu Shukla