HC protects Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s personality rights, says unauthorised use breaches privacy

The Delhi High Court on Thursday passed an order protecting the personality rights of actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, observing that the unauthorised use of her personality attributes violates her right to privacy and the right to live with dignity.

A bench of Justice Tejas Karia restrained several entities from using without permission the attributes of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, such as her name and photos.

The court said that the unauthorised use of her personality attributes was hurting her financially and harming her dignity, reputation and goodwill.

The misuse of her name, photo and likeness, among other attributes of her persona, infringes on her rights as it could cause confusion and create a perception of her having endorsed a product, the petition said.

Personality rights of an individual “entail the right to control and protect the exploitation of one’s image, name, likeness or other attributes of the individuals’ personality, in addition to the commercial gains that can be derived from the same”, the court said.

The bench said that it could not turn a blind eye in cases about the unauthorised exploitation of personality rights, and “shall protect the aggrieved parties so as to avert any harm to them resulting from the said unauthorised exploitation”.

The bench passed an interim injunction in favour of Aishwarya...

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