Gautam Gambhir personality rights case: Delhi HC orders Meta, Google to take down web links targeting India head coach

The Delhi High Court on Thursday said it will pass an interim order directing Meta and Google to remove objectionable web links targeting two-time World Cup winner and current India men's team head coach Gautam Gambhir. The decision comes a week after Gambhir filed a civil lawsuit, seeking protection of his personality and publicity rights, citing misuse of his name and image through AI-generated deepfakes.

Justice Jyoti Singh heard the matter. At the outset, Advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, appearing for Gambhir, thanked the court for allowing time to correct defects in the application.

He informed the Delhi HC that several defendants had already removed the offending content. However, he pointed out that fresh instances and replications were still appearing online and sought a dynamic injunction to address repeated uploads.

According to a LiveLaw report, after hearing both parties, Justice Singh said she will pass an interim order and ask Meta, Google and Amazon Sellers to take down the infringing content. The Delhi HC also said it will ask Google and Meta to provide Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) and Internet Protocol (IP) login details of the uploaders.

What did Meta & Google counsel say?

In the court, Meta's counsel submitted that the infringing URLs and content have been removed and are inaccessible as of Wednesday. Meta's counsel submitted a list of URLs to the court to support their position. The court recorded that one of the URLs was an entire profile.

“Statement is taken on record. If plaintiff comes across infringing links identical to the subject links; the same shall be brought to notice of defendant no 13 (Meta) through counsel and needful action be taken with 36 hours. It will be open to plaintiff to approach the court,” the court said.

The counsel for Google, who was present in court, said that one URL mentioned in the complaint had already been taken down. “Please give it in writing which have you taken down. All of you sit down. I will pass an order and be done with it,” the court added and passed over the matter.

Earlier, Gambhir sought ₹2.5 crore in damages from the defendants for allegedly misusing his name and images for commercial gain. He also reported that several AI-generated deepfake and manipulated videos were circulating online, attributing statements he had never made. He petitioned the removal of such misleading content from social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and X.

List of celebrities with personality rights protected

Gambhir became the second former Indian cricketer, after Sunil Gavaskar, to have his personality rights protected. Meanwhile, different benches of the Delhi High Court had previously passed orders safeguarding the personality rights of several public figures.

The list includes singer Jubin Nautiyal, Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, actors Kajol Devgan, R Madhavan, NTR Junior, Nagarjuna, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and film producer Karan Johar.

According to LiveLaw, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has also filed a lawsuit seeking protection of his personality rights. The Delhi High Court has passed similar orders protecting the personality rights of Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and journalist Sudhir Chaudhary.