In a strongly worded order that addresses the rising risk of synthetic intelligence-driven impersonation and misrepresentation, the Bombay High Court has granted actor Suniel Shetty pressing ex-parte interim reduction in opposition to the unauthorised use of his persona by means of deepfakes and AI-generated content material.
Justice Arif S. Doctor, in an order handed on October 10 and made obtainable on October 13, described the infringing materials as “a lethal combination of a depraved mind and the misuse of technology, resultantly causing harm to the plaintiff’s personality rights.”
The court docket was listening to Mr. Shetty’s industrial IP swimsuit looking for safety of his persona rights, privateness, and dignity beneath Article 21 of the Constitution and the Copyright Act, 1957. The actor had approached the court docket after discovering a sequence of AI-generated photographs and movies circulating on-line that falsely depicted him and his household in obscene and deceptive contexts. These had been hosted on platforms operated by Meta and X Corp and promoted by numerous identified and unknown entities.
Right to stay with dignity
Justice Doctor held that “The unauthorised creation and uploading of deepfake images of the Plaintiff on social media platforms constitutes a grave infringement not only of his personality rights but also of his right to live with dignity.”
The court docket famous that such exploitation, particularly when used to falsely affiliate the actor with playing web sites, astrology providers, and industrial endorsements, amounted to misappropriation of goodwill and client deception.
The court docket restrained seven named defendants: John Doe/Ashok Kumar (defendant 1), MyBhavishyavaani (defendant 2), Tring.co.in (defendant 4), Iceposter.com (defendant 6), PaisaWapas.com (defendant 13), WallpaperCave.com (defendant 15), and BCGame.co.in (defendant 18), from utilizing Mr. Shetty’s title, picture, voice, likeness, signature, and different identifiable attributes throughout any medium, together with AI-generated content material, deepfake movies, voice-cloned audio, and metaverse environments.
Take down order to Meta, X
The court docket additionally directed Meta Platforms (defendant 3) and X Corp (defendant 19) to take down all infringing content material listed within the plaint and to behave on future take down requests from Shetty. They had been additional ordered to supply subscriber and vendor info to help in figuring out infringers.
Justice Doctor emphasised the urgency of granting reduction with out prior discover to the defendants and famous, “Given the gravity and potential for irreversible harm and injury, this Court finds that the grant of injunction would be defeated by the delay of issuing notice, and thus, the present case warrants the immediate grant of ex-parte ad-interim reliefs.”
The decide additional held that the petitioner had made out a powerful prima facie case and that the stability of comfort lay totally in Shetty’s favour.
Social media corporations instructed to behave swiftly
The court docket additionally invoked Rule 3(1) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which requires platforms to stop the internet hosting of deceptive, obscene, or impersonating content material. This authorized foundation was used to direct Meta and X Corp to behave swiftly.
In assist of the reduction sought, Mr. Shetty’s counsel, Dr. Birendra Saraf, cited a number of precedents the place courts had recognised persona rights, together with circumstances involving Asha Bhosle, Arijit Singh, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Karan Johar.
The court docket acknowledged Mr. Shetty’s stature as a public determine with over three many years within the movie trade, an enormous social media following, and model endorsements. It held that the unauthorised exploitation of his persona attributes posed not solely industrial hurt but additionally a big threat to the general public, who could also be misled into believing false endorsements.
“The unauthorised exploitation of these attributes, while directly harming the plaintiff’s commercial interests, right to privacy, and right to live with dignity, also poses a significant risk of harm to the public,” the order mentioned.
The matter is subsequent listed for listening to on November 17, 2025.
Published – October 13, 2025 10:40 pm IST
