Delhi HC Passes John Doe Order Protecting Personality Rights Of Sadhguru Amid AI Misuse

The Delhi High Court has passed a 'dynamic+' injunction in favour of spiritual leader Sadhguru, who is also the founder of Isha Foundation, restraining rogue websites and social media platforms from misusing his name, image, voice, and likeness for commercial gains.

Justice Saurabh Banerjee was hearing Sadhguru's plea seeking a temporary injunction against the defendants (unknown third party), restraining them from infringing upon his personality rights and publicity rights, including his name, likeness, image, voice, and any other aspects of his persona solely and exclusively associated with him.

Noting that unauthorized parties are not only utilizing Sadhguru’s personality rights, the court said that the primary defendants have gone a step further by employing modern-day technology to modify his images, voice, likeness, and videos for commercial gains.

"Particularly, many accounts on YouTube channels and Meta’s social media platforms are using modern day technology to modify the voice, image, likeness etc. of the plaintiff no.1 to garner more views and subscribers in order to piggyback on his name and reputation," the court noted.

Observing that if such misuse of Sadhguru’s personality rights is allowed, the day will soon come when it will spread like a pandemic, particularly as everything is happening on social media, the Court said that it would be unreasonable to expect the plaintiff to chase after each defendant, which includes unknown persons or rogue websites. Therefore, properly protection is necessary.

"....... rights of a plaintiff, 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.

With the rise of new technologies and AI, the court noted that developers and innovators worldwide have a lot of freedom, making it easy for anyone to misuse such technology. As a result, individuals like Sadhguru, who hold intellectual property rights, are becoming increasingly vulnerable to such misuse. If these rogue websites are not restrained, they will continue misusing the personality rights.

Highlighting that the danger of misuse has become even more serious due to certain websites operating like "hydra-headed" entities, the court noted that it is virtually impossible to locate and contact their operators to demand cessation of infringing content.

"Thus, in light of the violations already committed by the ‘rogue websites’ by unauthorized streaming of the plaintiff’s personality rights by using modern technology and AI tools to unauthorizedly morph and doctored the plaintiff no. 1’spersonality rightson the ‘rogue website’, this Court sees every likelihood that such ‘rogue website’ will continue to disseminate to the public without authorisation or license from the plaintiffs," the court said.

Taking note of the fact that the plaintiff has been able to make out a prima facie case in its favour and against the defendants, the court observed that the balance of convenience also tilts towards granting relief in favour of the plaintiff.

In case an ex parte ad interim injunction is not granted, the court noted that the plaintiff is likely to suffer irreparable loss and injury.

The court accordingly restrained rogue websites and individuals from using or exploiting Sadhguru’s name, image, voice, likeness, or any aspect of his persona through any technology, including AI, without permission.

It directed domain providers to suspend infringing websites and disclose registrant details. It also ordered social media platforms like X, YouTube, and Instagram to disable fake accounts and remove infringing content.

Additionally, the court directed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to issue necessary blocking orders to service providers.

Case Title: Sadhguru Jagadish Vasudev & anr versus Igor Isakov & Ors.