Delhi High Court: In a case filed by Amitabh Bachchan for protection of his publicity rights against the fake Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) lottery fraud, the Single Judge Bench of Navin Chawla, J. granted ad-interim ex-parte injunction in favour of Amitabh Bachchan and restrained the defendants from infringing his publicity or personality rights by misusing his name, voice, image, or any other attribute exclusive to him.
Plaintiff alleged violation of his ‘publicity rights as a celebrity’ as had been recognized by this Court in Titan Industries Ltd. v. Ramkumar Jewellers, 2012 SCC OnLine Del 2382. In the present case, plaintiff was aggrieved by defendant’s unauthorized use of his celebrity status to promote their own goods and services, without his permission or authorization.
Analysis, Law, and Decision
The Court opined that plaintiff had made out a prime facie case in its favour for the grant of an ad-interim ex-parte injunction and the balance of convenience was also in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendants. The Court noted that defendants were using plaintiff’s celebrity status for promoting their own activities, without plaintiff’s permission or authorization. Therefore, plaintiff would suffer irreparable harm and injury to defendant’s reputation.
Thus, the Court granted an ad-interim ex-parte injunction in favour of Amitabh Bachchan, thereby restraining defendants from infringing Amitabh Bachchan’s publicity or personality rights by misusing his name ‘Amitabh Bachchan/Bachchan/BigB/AB’, voice, image or any other attribute that was exclusively identifiable with him, for any commercial or personal gain.
[Amitabh Bachchan v. Rajat Nagi, 2022 SCC OnLine Del 4110, decided on 25-11-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Plaintiff: Senior Advocate Harish Salve;
Advocate Pravin Anand;
Advocate Ameet Naik;
Advocate Madhu Gadolia;
Advocate Dhruv Anand;
Advocate Udita Patro;
Advocate Sujoy Mukherjee;
Advocate Nimrat Singh;
Advocate Swati Jain;
Advocate Sampurnaa Sanyal;
Advocate Tarini;
Advocate Rashmin Khandekar;
Advocate Karishni Khanna.