Delhi high court permanently protects actor Amitabh Bachchan's personality rights

The Delhi high court has granted permanent protection to the personality rights of veteran Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, restraining entities from using his name, image, voice, or other aspects of his persona without his consent.

In its November 5 order, a bench of justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav decreed the suit filed by Bachchan in 2022, after being informed that he had entered into settlements with four entities acknowledging his publicity rights and right to privacy.

The settlement

As part of the settlement, one individual informed the court that he had taken steps to remove the mobile application titled Amitabh Bachchan Video Call, while the other said that it had discontinued publication of its General Knowledge Quizbook, which featured the actor’s image.

One individual submitted that it had stopped selling posters bearing Bachchan’s image, name and likeness. Meanwhile, another informed the court that he had deleted the domain name amitabhbachchan.in in November 2022 and had not derived any monetary benefit from it.

All four entities undertook not to use Bachchan’s name, image, voice, likeness or any other aspect of his persona in the future without his express permission.

The order

With regard to the remaining defendants, including unknown entities, the court noted that, despite being served, they had failed to appear or file written statements, and that their right to file written statements had been closed on September 25, 2023.

The court further observed that, in a commercial suit, the statutory timeline for filing a written statement cannot be extended beyond the prescribed period.

The court said that its November 2022 interim order protecting the veteran actor’s rights would stand merged in the decree.

“Accordingly, the application stands allowed. The suit stands decreed qua defendant nos. 1, 3, 5 and 8 in terms of paragraph no. 76(a) to (c) of the plaint and in terms of paragraph no. 7 of the instant application. Let the decree sheet be drawn up by the Registry. The application, which embodies the terms of the compromise, shall form part of the decree sheet. None of the defendants has filed a written statement disputing the plaintiff‟s case, and defendant nos. 1, 3, 5 and 8 have themselves accepted the plaintiff‟s rights and suffered a decree,” the court said in the order.

It added, “The interim injunction dated 25.11.2022 operated against the John Does as well. The plaint discloses a continuing pattern of anonymous misuse of the plaintiff‟s persona, through websites, applications, posters and messaging platforms, which the plaintiff cannot track to identified persons. The decree in terms of paragraph no. 76(a) to (c) shall, therefore, also operate against defendant no. 10.”