New Delhi, Dec 26 (NationPress) The Delhi High Court has issued an ad-interim injunction favoring actor and Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Pawan Kalyan. This order prevents various online platforms, AI technologies, websites, and unidentified parties from exploiting his name, image, voice, likeness, and other aspects of his personality for commercial purposes.

A single-judge bench presided by Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora delivered the ex parte ruling in response to a lawsuit filed by Kalyan, aimed at defending his personality and publicity rights against unauthorized merchandise, impersonation, AI-generated content, deepfakes, and deceptive online listings.

The court remarked that Kalyan, a celebrated public figure with a remarkable career in Telugu cinema and public service, has accrued significant commercial brand value linked to his name, image, voice, and persona over the span of nearly three decades.

The ruling highlighted that Kalyan's celebrity status inherently entitles him to proprietary rights over his personal attributes.

The petition indicated that multiple entities were unlawfully exploiting Kalyan's persona without authorization by selling merchandise like T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, posters, and stickers, misleading event listings, maintaining impersonation accounts on social media, and utilizing AI tools to create synthetic voice, images, and conversational outputs in his name.

The Delhi High Court noted that the unauthorized use of Kalyan's attributes constitutes a violation of his personality rights and that the ongoing presence of such content could result in irreparable harm.

Justice Arora emphasized, "The balance of convenience leans in favor of the plaintiff, and the persistent availability of infringing content could cause irreparable damage to the plaintiff." Consequently, the Delhi HC has prohibited identified infringing parties as well as John Doe entities from utilizing or exploiting Kalyan's name, image, likeness, or voice for any commercial intent, including through artificial intelligence, generative AI, or deepfakes, without his permission.

The ruling also mandated e-commerce platforms, including Flipkart, Amazon, and Meesho, to remove infringing products and provide KYC details of sellers to the plaintiff.

Websites misusing Kalyan's identity for events or merchandise were instructed to eliminate infringing links within a week.

Additionally, AI platforms were directed to refrain from enabling the creation of AI-generated content that infringes on Kalyan's personality rights.

On social media, Justice Arora differentiated between impersonation and long-standing fan pages. Certain Instagram fan accounts were allowed to remain active, provided they include a clear disclaimer indicating they are fan pages; otherwise, those accounts would be deactivated.

The judge also instructed Google and Meta to provide Basic Subscriber Information and IP login details for the remaining infringing URLs, facilitating the identification of anonymous violators.

This case has been scheduled for review by the Joint Registrar on February 9 for finalizing pleadings, and will return to the Bench on May 12, 2026.