Delhi HC protects Kumar Sanu' s personality rights

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday protected the personality and publicity rights of singer Kumar Sanu, and directed removal of objectionable videos against him from social media.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora orally said it would pass a detailed interim injunction order protecting Sanu's rights and ordering take down of offending material.

The court was hearing Sanu's plea seeking protection of his personality and publicity rights, including his name, voice, vocal style and technique, vocal arrangements and interpretations, mannerisms and manner of singing, images, caricatures, photographs, likeness and signature.


The singer has also sought protection against unauthorised or unlicensed use and commercial exploitation by third parties, which is likely to create confusion or deception and dilution among the public.

During the hearing, the court noted that the counsel for one of the defendants submitted that Sanu has raised a grievance regarding four profiles on Facebook and Instagram and that the 334 URLs provided by the plaintiff have become unavailable.

The suit, filed through advocates Shikha Sachdeva and Sana Raees Khan, also alleges violation of Sanu's moral rights in his performances conferred upon him by virtue of provisions of the Copyright Act.

The plea has claimed that the defendants are violating the singer's personality and publicity rights by extracting his name, voice, likeness and persona.

Recently, Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, her husband Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, filmmaker Karan Johar, Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, "Art of Living" founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and journalist Sudhir Chaudhary also approached the high court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights and the court granted them interim relief.

The right to publicity, popularly known as personality rights, is the right to protect, control and profit from one's image, name or likeness.

Sanu is aggrieved by various GIFs, and audio and video recordings containing his performances and voice, which bring disrepute to him and make him a subject of "unsavoury humour", thereby violating his moral rights in his performances.

He is also aggrieved by content made using artificial intelligence (AI) to clone his voice, vocal style and technique, vocal arrangements and interpretations, manner of singing, and the morphing of his face, including making of merchandise.

"Such merchandise and audios/videos of the plaintiff generate revenue for the defendants, as they are uploaded and streamed on social networking websites, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, which generate revenue based on the number of clicks or views to a particular image/video," the suit said.

"Such acts also amount to an attempt at false endorsements and passing off and hence, must be restrained by an order of injunction by this court," it said.