The Delhi High Court on Friday issued summons to the Union government and social media intermediaries, including Meta and X, on a civil suit filed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor seeking protection of his personality and publicity rights against alleged unauthorised misuse of his name, image, likeness and identity across digital and online platforms.
The single-judge Bench of Justice Mini Pushkarna said that it would pass interim directions for the removal of alleged deepfake videos depicting Tharoor praising Pakistan, while also extending protection to his personality and publicity rights against unauthorised digital misuse. The High Court directed the respondents to file their replies within four weeks and orally observed that blocking and removal directions would be passed on Tharoor’s civil suit seeking takedown of allegedly fabricated and AI-generated content circulated online.
Appearing for Tharoor, Senior Advocate Amit Sibal submitted that several hyper-realistic deepfake videos had surfaced across multiple URLs falsely attributing politically sensitive statements to the Congress leader. It was argued that the content had been generated through artificial intelligence and machine learning tools capable of replicating Tharoor’s face, voice, speech patterns and mannerisms with high accuracy.
According to the plaint, the manipulated videos falsely portrayed Tharoor as praising Pakistan’s diplomatic strategy and foreign policy. The suit alleged that the fabricated content amounted to misappropriation of personality rights, reputational injury, dissemination of misinformation and unlawful interference with democratic and electoral processes.
The plaintiff further contended that despite complaints being made under the Information Technology Rules and certain URLs being taken down, identical content repeatedly resurfaced through different links and accounts. It was argued that the recurring publication of such material demonstrated the need for dynamic injunctions and continuing monitoring mechanisms against future uploads.
Senior counsel submitted that fact-checking agencies and media organisations had already identified the videos as fake, yet the content continued to circulate widely, allegedly causing reputational harm, public confusion and mental distress. It was further argued that such manipulated content could potentially impact India’s diplomatic standing and be misused by foreign entities.
Counsel appearing for [Meta](https://about.meta.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) informed the Court that the Instagram URLs identified in the plaint had already been disabled and rendered inaccessible. The platform further stated that basic subscriber information and IP-related details associated with the infringing accounts could be furnished in accordance with the law.
The Court indicated that it would pass a standard dynamic injunction order enabling the plaintiff to approach platforms for the removal of future infringing links containing identical content. The Bench also took note of the recurring nature of AI-generated impersonation and online identity misuse.
Tharoor has instituted the proceedings against multiple identified and unidentified defendants, including John Doe parties. The suit invokes legal principles relating to personality rights, privacy rights, passing off, misappropriation of identity, reputational protection and intermediary liability under the Information Technology framework.
The Delhi High Court has, in recent years, developed substantial jurisprudence recognising and protecting personality rights of public figures against unauthorised commercial exploitation, AI-generated manipulation and digital impersonation. Similar protective orders have previously been granted in favour of Aman Gupta, Allu Arjun, Mohanlal, Jubin Nautiyal, Pawan Kalyan, Sunil Gavaskar, Kajol, R. Madhavan, Salman Khan and Sudhir Chaudhary, among others.
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