Delhi High Court cautions against use of personality rights to snuff out caricature, parody

Delhi High Court. File | Photo Credit: The Hindu The Delhi High Court has warned that personality rights cannot be invoked so broadly as to stifle caricature, satire or parody, particularly when such expression does not involve commercial exploitation.The court observed while granting interim protection to Physics Wallah founder Alakh Pandey against the unauthorised use of his name, image and other personality attributes for impersonation and monetisation.Mr Pandey had alleged that various online platforms and users were commercially exploiting his identity through social media posts, sticker packs, videos, websites and other content. He also claimed that some of the material was vulgar and sexually explicit.In an interim order passed on August 5, Justice Anup J. Bhambhani said protection would be granted in respect of three categories of alleged violations, sexually vulgar content, unauthorised commercial exploitation of Pandey’s personality, and impersonation.At the same time, the court cautioned against an overly broad understanding of personality rights. “In the opinion of this court, the concept of personality rights as has been claimed in the present matter may be over broad and therefore susceptible to misapplication,” the court observed.The judge said the court was mindful that personality rights should not be used to suppress information concerning wrongdoing or to wipe out an entire category of expression, including caricature, lampooning and parody, where such content does not amount to commercial exploitation of a person’s personality or publicity rights.“Proceeding from this word of caution, in the present case, the court is persuaded to grant protection to the plaintiff limited only to 03 sets of violations complained of in the plaint,” the court said. It also directed online platforms to remove the offending content identified in its order.A number of prominent public figures, including actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Salman Khan, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, podcaster Raj Shamani, Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan and cricketer Abhishek Sharma, have approached the high court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights.The High Court has granted interim protection in those cases as well. Published - August 25, 2026 10:33 am IST