Delhi HC to Pass Order Protecting Personality Rights of Singer Kumar Sanu

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, said it would pass an order protecting the personality rights of Indian playback singer Kumar Sanu.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora briefly heard Sanu’s plea.

The singer sought protection of his name, voice, vocal style, technique, vocal arrangements, interpretations, mannerisms, images, caricatures, photographs, likeness, and signature.

In his plea, Sanu also sought protection against any unauthorised or unlicensed use and commercial exploitation of his persona by third parties, arguing that such actions were likely to cause confusion, deception, and dilution among the public.

During the hearing, counsel for the plaintiff provided a list of infringing URLs. After hearing all the concerned parties, the Court orally remarked that it would protect the personality rights of Sanu and would order the takedown of unauthorised content.

During the previous hearing, counsel for Kumar Sanu had submitted that the plaintiff was a celebrated personality. It was contended that Defendants 1 to 5 had been using AI voice modulation and cloning to imitate Sanu’s voice and singing style. The counsel added that distorted and morphed videos of the singer were being circulated online.

One such video, the Court was told, appeared on an Instagram page falsely showing Kumar Sanu singing a song for former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. The defendants were also alleged to have engaged in commercial merchandising and to have circulated false and misleading personal information about the singer through such content.

The counsel submitted that these videos were being uploaded through URLs featuring morphed visuals and derogatory depictions of the artist. After hearing the submissions, the Court directed counsel for Defendant No. 7, Meta, Facebook, and Google to take instructions in light of the plaintiff’s contention that the impugned URLs contained morphed videos and profane language, and to clarify why such content should not be removed by the platforms’ grievance officers in accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules.

Court had remarked,“If you won’t take it down, I will ask you. Everyone is rushing to court. Why has everyone forgotten the IT Rules?”

In response, counsel for the defendants submitted that under the IT Rules, the term defamation had been specifically removed, making it difficult for intermediaries to determine what constituted profanity or objectionable material. The counsel added that such determinations could only be made by the Court, not by the platforms.

To this, the Court said, “Whatever you can take down, you may. Otherwise, I’m here.”

 Court had also directed the plaintiff to provide a tabulated list of URLs corresponding to each defendant, following the format used in actor Jackie Shroff’s case. The matter was then listed for Wednesday.

The suit, filed through advocates Shikha Sachdeva and Sana Raees Khan, also alleged violation of Sanu’s moral rights in his performances, as protected under the Copyright Act.

Notably, Sanu’s plea came amid a series of similar actions by public figures seeking to protect their digital and personality rights. Recently, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Telugu actor Nagarjuna, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, and Bollywood celebrities including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Karan Johar have approached the Court over the unauthorised use of their likeness and identity.

Case Title: Kumar Sanu Bhattacharjee v. Jammable Limited & Ors

Bench: Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora

Hearing Date: 13 October

Inputs: PTI