Delhi High Court Issues Dynamic Injunction Against AI-Generated Infringement Of Sadhguru's Rights
Delhi High Court Issues Dynamic Injunction Against AI-Generated Infringement Of Sadhguru's Rights
The Delhi High Court restrains rogue websites and social media accounts from misusing AI to infringe on Sadhguru's personality rights.
The Delhi High Court issues a "dynamic+" injunction order prohibiting social media accounts and rogue websites from exploiting artificial intelligence (AI) to violate the personality rights of Sadhguru, also known as Jagadish "Jaggi" Vasudev, the founder of the Isha Foundation. Furthermore, YouTube and X (previously Twitter) were directed by Justice Saurabh Banerjee to reveal the Basic Subscriber Information of users of these accounts and to remove accounts proven to be used for such activities.
The Court stated that, “The rights of a plaintiff (Sadhguru), cannot be rendered otiose in this world of rapidly developing technology and for that, enforcement of intellectual property rights on any social platform, including but not limited to, the internet as well alongwith the real world, ought to be visible and effective.”
The Court observed that a strong prima facie case had been made out for an ex parte, interim dynamic injunction order to protect Sadhguru's personality rights. A dynamic injunction is a broad restraining order that extends to future instances of right violations as well.
The Court added that, “The rogue websites are using URL-redirection and identity masking methods and so a prima facie case of personality rights infringement has been made out ... In these circumstances, the present case appears, prima facie, to be a clear example of personality rights infringement by entities such as defendant nos. 1-41, who are using modern technology to hide their identities while unlawfully benefiting from the plaintiff’s personality rights. “
The plaintiff had moved the Court on concerns that his personality rights were being violated through the misuse of AI. The Court noted that Sadhguru was a trusted source for spiritual guidance worldwide with a unique personality and that any misuse or misrepresentation of his personality would harm his reputation and also the public’s trust.
In this case the plaintiff was represented by Mr. Srikrishna Rajagopal, Ms.Disha Sharma, Ms. Deepika Pokharia, Mr. Angad Makkar and Mr. Pushpet Ghosh, Advocates.
Google was represented by Ms. Mamta Jha, Co-Managing Partner from Inttl Advocare with Ms. Shruttima Ehersa, Mr.Rahul Choudhary and Ms.Himani Sachdeva, Advocates. Meanwhile Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology was represented by Mr. Sandeep Kumar Mahapatra and Mr. Tribhuvan, Advocates.
