Delhi High Court restrains misuse of cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s identity
The Delhi High Court has granted interim protection to former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh, restraining individuals and online entities from using his name, image, voice
The Delhi High Court has granted interim protection to former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh, restraining individuals and online entities from using his name, image, voice, likeness, and other personality attributes without his consent, particularly using Artificial Intelligence (AI), deepfakes, and other digital technologies. Justice Jyoti Singh passed the order in a suit filed by Mr. Singh alleging widespread misuse of his personality rights through AI-generated images, fabricated videos, false social media posts, and unauthorised sale of merchandise bearing his name and likeness. According to the plea, several social media accounts had circulated AI-generated images and videos falsely depicting the cricketer in fabricated situations, including religiously insensitive content, violent conduct, vulgar videos created by using face-swapping technology, and attributing false statements to him.
The suit also alleged that e-commerce sellers were commercially exploiting his personality by selling T-shirts, photo frames and stickers without authorisation. The court observed that Mr. Singh is one of the most decorated, recognised, and globally renowned cricketers, who has brought many laurels to India, and represented the country across all formats of the sport for 17 years. It noted that his name, image, voice and likeness were exclusively his to commercially exploit, and deserve legal protection from unauthorised use. “I am of the view that Plaintiff (Mr. Singh) has made out a prima facie case for grant of ex parte ad interim injunction against the Defendants,” the court said in its July 29, 2026 order.
“There can be no dispute that Plaintiff’s stature inherently grants him proprietary rights over his personality and associated attributes and gives him the exclusive rights to use the personality attributes for commercial purposes,” the court added. Referring to earlier judgments protecting celebrity personality rights, including those involving Anil Kapoor and Sunil Gavaskar, the court reiterated that unauthorised commercial use of a person’s identity amounts to infringement of personality rights. It also observed that violations of personality and privacy rights “need to be dealt with a heavy hand”.
The court directed Amazon Seller Services, Flipkart Internet, Meta Platforms, and others to remove specified infringing URLs.
The BriefWire