Amitabh Bachchan moves Delhi HC seeking protection of his personality rights

Veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan has moved Delhi High Court seeking protection of his personality rights. The actor's voice and images have been widely used at various places over the years and now, Big B has asked protection from the same. Eminent lawyer Harish Salve appeared for him at the court where his petition was heard today. The court directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and telecom service providers, to remove flagged content and said that Big B's name, image, or voice can't be used without his permission.

Salve said, "I am just giving a flavour of what is going on. Someone is making t-shirts and started putting his face on them. Someone is selling his poster. Someone has gone and registered a domain name, amitabhbachchan.com. This is why we have come."

He added, "This nonsense has been going on for a while…there is a lottery in Gujarat where the defendant has brazenly copied (the) logo of KBC where his photographs



are all over it…it appears to be scam…There is no lottery…no one wins."

Ruling in Amitabh Bachchan's favour, Justice Navin Chawla said, "It cannot seriously be disputed that the plaintiff is a well-known personality and is also represented in various advertisements"

The High court observed, "The plaintiff is aggrieved by the defendants from unauthorizedly using his celebrity status to promote their goods and services without his permission or authorization. I am of the considered opinion that the plaintiff has made out a good prima facie case in his favour. The balance of convenience also lies in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendant."

IT added, "The defendants appear to be using his (Bachchan’s) status for promoting their own activities without his permission, wherein the plaintiff is likely to suffer grave loss and irreparable injury. In fact, some of the activities may also bring disrepute to the plaintiff."