New Delhi. Delhi High Court has given a very important decision in favor of Bollywood actress Kajol. The court has immediately banned the misuse of Kajol’s name, picture, voice and her entire identity. This decision has come at a time when misuse of celebrity identities through artificial intelligence, deepfakes and social media is increasing rapidly.
During the hearing, the court has said that it is illegal to use someone’s identity without permission. This is a direct attack on the dignity of the individual. This order was given by Justice Jyoti Singh of the single judge bench of Delhi High Court. In this case, Kajol had complained against many websites, e-commerce platforms, social media intermediaries, AI chatbot sites and some unknown people. These unidentified people are called ‘John Doe’ in legal language, whose identity has not been revealed yet, but who have been found involved in wrongful activities online.
Kajol’s petition alleged that a large number of merchandise were being sold online using her photographs and name. Apart from this, fake pictures of him were being created with the help of AI. Obscene AI chatbots were being run on some websites using their identities.
Delhi High Court said in its order that Kajol is a well-known and respected actress of the Indian film industry, whose career has spanned almost four decades. He has also been awarded prestigious honors like Padmashree. His identity is a strong brand, which he has built over years of hard work. Using this identity without permission is against the law and court intervention is necessary in such cases, so that any kind of unfair advantage can be prevented.
The court said that if the websites and online marketplaces were selling goods bearing Kajol’s name and picture, such goods were of poor quality, it could harm Kajol’s reputation. Judge Jyoti Singh said in her order, “After looking at all the documents and the complaint, it is clear that Kajol’s case is strong. If the ban was not imposed immediately, they could have suffered loss, which would not be possible to compensate later.” The court ruled to impose an interim ban on this.
Under this order, the court banned all the accused and unknown people from using Kajol’s identity in any way. This includes their name, photo, voice, face, body language and every aspect related to their identity. In particular, a strict ban has been imposed on the use of tools like AI, Generative AI, Deepfake, face morphing and chatbots. The court has ordered e-commerce platforms and merchandise sellers to remove all false products related to Kajol and delete related links within 72 hours.
Social media and video platforms have also been instructed to remove objectionable posts and videos. Instructions have also been given to video platform YouTube. Apart from this, the Department of Telecommunication and Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology have also been ordered to block websites hosting obscene and objectionable content within 72 hours. The next hearing of this case will be on April 23.
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