New Delhi [India], October 1 : The Delhi High Court has observed that the circulation of deepfake content impersonating spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar amounts to a clear infringement of his personality and publicity rights.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora stated that defendant no. 1, an unidentified entity (John Doe), had been "unauthorisedly circulating deepfake content using the name, voice, facial expressions, persona and likeness of the plaintiff," thereby misleading the public and causing irreparable harm.
The Court held that a prima facie case was established in favour of the plaintiff and emphasised that failure to restrain such acts would cause serious damage to his reputation and identity.
The observations came while hearing a suit filed by Ravi Shankar seeking a permanent injunction against the dissemination of fabricated videos on social media and independent websites. According to the plaintiff, between July and August 2025, multiple manipulated videos surfaced online showing the plaintiff allegedly endorsing Ayurvedic or natural remedies for ailments like diabetes, haemorrhoids and chronic knee pain.
These videos, created using advanced AI technologies such as voice cloning and deepfake tools, falsely suggested that he had personally researched or discovered these remedies.
The Court, noting the urgency of the matter, issued an ex parte ad interim injunction, restraining unknown defendants and their associates from misusing the plaintiff's name, likeness, voice, or style of discourse across any medium, including AI-generated formats, metaverse platforms, and future technologies, without authorisation.
Further, Facebook's parent company (defendant no. 4) was directed to take down the infringing content within 36 hours, while domain registrars were ordered to suspend and lock the identified websites within 72 hours.
The Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology were also directed to notify internet service providers to block access to the offending websites.
The Court underscored that if additional deepfake content or infringing websites emerge during the pendency of the suit, the plaintiff would be entitled to approach the Joint Registrar for extension of the injunction.
It also clarified that non-infringing websites inadvertently blocked could approach the Court for modification of the order. The case will now be listed before the Joint Registrar on October 15, 2025, and before the Court on February 19, 2026.