Delhi HC grants the first-of-its-kind order in favour of Amitabh Bachchan

On November 25, Justice Navin Chawla of the Delhi High Court issued an order restraining the use of Amitabh Bachchan's name, image, voice or any of his characteristics without his consent. The order is a landmark verdict, the first of its kind in India, which is not only against the defendants namely Rajat Nagi, Rana Partap Singh and Ors but also the world at large for misusing Amitabh Bachchan's name, image, voice and personality attributes. It is a 'John Doe' order, which is against the world at large and has a wider ambit since it would be impossible for the veteran actor to keep track of the recurring infringements.

The misuse of his name, image and voice, especially by mobile application developers, people conducting lottery by illegally associating with KBC, book publishers, T-shirt vendors and various other businesses, has prompted Amitabh Bachchan to approach the high court, seeking a restraining order against the use of his personality traits.

Eminent lawyer Harish Salve, along with Ameet Naik and Praveen Anand, instructed by 'Anand and Naik', appeared for the actor in the high court.

Ameet Naik, Joint Managing Partner of 'Anand and Naik' stated, "This landmark verdict will injunct any person from using the name, image, voice and other personality attributes of Amitabh Bachchan without his consent and authorisation 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 further said, "We are pleased that the Delhi High Court has presented this landmark verdict and am grateful to Harish Salve and Praveen Anand for this trend-setting order, which will help talent in our country protect their personality rights."

The verdict also paves the way for the evolution of the law on personality rights in the country, which protects an individual's right to personality and publicity, rights under copyright and common law rights. It was also brought to the attention of the court that infringers had illegally registered Amitabh Bachchan's name as web-domain names such as www.amitabhbachchan.com and www.amitabhbachchan.in.

The high court has passed a detailed order against the defendants and the world at large, injuncting them from infringing on his personality rights and attributes, including his name 'Amitabh Bachchan/ Bachchan/ AB/ Big-B', image and voice. The high court has also directed the DOT and Ministry of Electronics and IT to pull down all links/websites that infringe upon Amitabh 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.