Yoga guru and Patanjali Ayurved founder Ramdev has approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection of his personality rights. He alleges unauthorised use of his identity and distinctive attributes across digital platforms.
The matter came up on February 17 before Justice Jyoti Singh. The Court briefly heard Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar, who appeared for Ramdev, as well as counsel for social media intermediaries. The Court listed the matter for hearing tomorrow.
X Corp Opposes Takedown
During the hearing, counsel for X Corp (formerly Twitter) argued that courts cannot order removal of political commentary, satire, fair comment, or public speech merely because a personality rights claim has been filed.
The Court directed both sides to submit a detailed list or note identifying the specific content under challenge.
Reliefs Claimed
In the suit, Ramdev seeks an injunction restraining the defendants, including unknown entities (John Does), from using his title, image, likeness, voice, unique speaking style, and other identifiable attributes without authorisation. He claims that certain entities are using these attributes for commercial gain.
He further alleges misuse of his personality rights through artificial intelligence-generated content and deepfakes.
Earlier Personality Rights Orders
The petition follows a series of recent orders from coordinate benches of the Delhi High Court granting similar protection to public figures.
The Court has previously protected the personality rights of Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, and actors R. Madhavan and NTR Junior. Actor Salman Khan has also filed a similar suit.
Coordinate benches have also granted protection to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of The Art of Living foundation; Telugu actor Nagarjuna; Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan; and film producer Karan Johar.
More recently, the Court protected journalist Sudhir Chaudhary in relation to allegedly misleading and AI-generated videos circulated on social media. It also passed a John Doe order in favour of podcaster Raj Shamani, noting that he is a recognised content creator in India.
The case is titled Swami Ramdev v. John Doe & Ors.
