Delhi HC restrains ‘world at large’ from using Amitabh Bachchan’s image, voice

1 min read . Updated: 25 Nov 2022, 03:22 PM IST Priyanka Gawande

Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan (AFP) — Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan **(AFP)**

Bachchan’s said misuse of his name, image and voice, especially by the mobile application developers, people conducting lottery, book publishers, T-shirt vendors prompted the actor to approach the high court

Mumbai: The Delhi High Court on Friday restrained the “world at large" from using actor Amitabh Bachchan’s name, image, voice or any of his characteristics without his permission.

This comes after the veteran actor moved the court against the defendants namely Rajat Nagi, Rana Partap Singh & Ors, and also the world at large for allegedly misusing Bachchan’s name, image, voice and personality attributes.

The actor in his petition stated that the misuse of his name, image and voice, especially by the mobile application developers, people conducting lottery by illegally associating with KBC, book publishers, T-shirt vendors and various other businesses prompted the actor to approach the high court.

Ameet B Naik, joint managing partner, Anand and Naik, representing Bachchan said that “It is a ‘John Doe’ order, which is against the world-at-large and has a wider ambit, since it would be impossible for Mr Bachchan to keep a track of the recurring infringements."

The verdict also paves the way for the evolution of law on personality rights in the country, which protects an individual’s right to personality and publicity, rights under copyright and common law rights.

The verdict will now restrain any person from using the name, image, voice and other personality attributes of Bachchan without his consent and authorization by any means, physical or digital. The Indian jurisprudence will finally develop and evolve on personality rights and Amitabh Bachchan is the right personality to set this trend, he said.

The Delhi HC was informed that infringers have illegally registered Bachchan’s name as web-domain names such as www.amitabhbachchan.com and www.amitabhbachchan.in.

A bench led by Justice Navin Chawla directed the telecom department and Ministry of Electronics & IT to pull down all links/websites that infringe upon Bachchan’s attributes.

Moreover, the court has injuncted the registrants of the domain names --www.amitabhbachchan.com and www.amitabhbachchan.in -- from creating third-party rights on them. The court has also directed telecom service providers to block access to all phone numbers used by the defendants to circulate infringing messages

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Priyanka Gawande

Priyanka Gawande is a senior legal correspondent at Mint. She has worked as legal reporter for four years with both television and digital mediums. Based in Mumbai, she reports on disputes across sectors including banking, corporates and finance. This also includes insolvency and bankruptcy cases and intellectual property rights (IPR) litigation. Her focus also comprises tracking capital markets and disputes relating to securities law. Previously, Priyanka worked with Informist Media for 2.5 years covering major insolvency and bankruptcy cases and corporate developments. She started her career in journalism with Business Television India (BTVi) where she reported on primary markets, banking, finance and insurance companies.