NEW DELHI: In a landmark move highlighting the growing emphasis on personality and publicity rights, Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar has approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection against misuse of his name, photographs and likeness on social media and e-commerce platforms.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!On Friday, a bench of single justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora ordered the social media intermediaries to treat Gavaskar’s suit as a formal complaint under the Information Technology (Instructions for Intermediaries and Digital Media Code of Conduct) Rules, 2021 and decide on it within a week, according to an IANS report. The judge emphasized that the complainants must first use the mechanism set out under the IT 2021 rules before approaching the courts.
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“You know about my order, don’t you? You have to go to the mediator first. Let them deal with your complaint… We can deal with it after 10 days. Till then they can look into your complaint and you can come back. It will largely take care of your complaint,” Justice Arora remarked orally.The court also directed Gavaskar to submit the URLs of the infringing content to the platforms within 48 hours. Among the defendants named in the case are social media intermediaries as well as unidentified “John Doe” entities responsible for uploading objectionable material.
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The order follows a similar recent ruling in Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s case, where the Delhi High Court asked platforms to act within three days to remove fake news, AI-generated content and commercial exploitation of his image and voice.Gavaskar’s lawsuit joins a growing list of high-profile figures seeking legal intervention to protect their identity and likeness. Recent recipients of such legal protection include actor Jr NTR, spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, actors Nagarjuna, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, filmmaker Karan Johar and podcaster Raj Shamani.
