Delhi HC Protects Singer Kumar Sanu’s Personality Rights

The Delhi High Court has granted interim relief protecting the personality rights of playback singer Kumar Sanu, restraining the unauthorised commercial use of his name, image, and voice, including through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other technological tools.

The Bench, presided over by Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, observed that the singer’s personality traits and attributes form protectable elements of his persona.

“Therefore, prima facie the Plaintiff’s personality traits and/or parts thereof, including Plaintiff’s name Kumar Sanu, voice, image, photograph or likeness and other attributes are protectable elements of the Plaintiff’s personality rights. The Plaintiff is entitled to protect itself against morphed and distorted content which is demeaning,” the Court said.

The Court noted that Kumar Sanu had established a prima facie case for the grant of an ex-parte ad-interim injunction, observing that the balance of convenience lay in his favour and that denying protection would cause irreparable loss and harm to his reputation.

“On basis of the assertions made in the plaint and perusal of documents filed on record, this Court is of the prima facie view that the Plaintiff is a notable singer/performer in India who has gained immense goodwill and reputation over the course of a very successful career and has acquired a celebrity status in India,” the Court recorded.

The Court was dealing with a suit alleging that several online platforms and individuals had been using the singer’s name, likeness, and voice through morphing, superimposing, and AI-generated content to promote merchandise and social media pages for commercial gain.

In its directions, the Court restrained Defendants, or anyone acting on their behalf, from utilising Kumar Sanu’s name, likeness, image, voice, personality, or any other aspect of his persona to create merchandise or content using AI, machine learning, face morphing or GIFs for commercial purposes.

The Court further directed Google LLC and Meta Platforms Inc. to take down infringing URLs listed in the annexures, provide Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) and IP logs of users who uploaded infringing content within three weeks, and to act within 48 hours on future takedown requests from the plaintiff.

Additionally, the Court directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to suspend all infringing links, websites, and mobile applications, and provide any available details of the parties operating such platforms.

The interim protection has been granted till the next date of hearing, March 30, 2026.

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 had orally remarked that it would protect the personality rights of Sanu and would order the takedown of unauthorised content.

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 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, had approached the Court over the unauthorised use of their likeness and identity.

Case Title: Kumar Sanu Bhattacharjee vs Jammable Limited & Ors

Bench: Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora

Order Date: 15 October 2025