Delhi HC protects Ajay Devgn's personality rights, orders takedown of objectionable contents
New Delhi, Nov 27 (PTI): The Delhi High Court on Thursday protected the personality rights of Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn by restraining several websites and online platforms from illegally using his name or images for commercial gain without his consent.
The high court also restrained several defendants from using the personality traits of Ajay alias Vishal Veeru Devgan through the use of artificial intelligence and deepfake technology, and ordered the taking down of certain obscene content uploaded on the Internet.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said she will pass a detailed interim order in the matter.
Advocate Pravin Anand, representing the actor, said the defendants were indulging in the production of commercial merchandise, including caps, stickers and posters, impersonating Devgn and images showing him with other celebrities in an unpleasant manner.
During the hearing, the court asked the plaintiff's counsel whether they had lodged a protest with defendants YouTube and Google regarding the unpleasant content against the actor on YouTube.
As the counsel replied in the negative, the judge said she will make an observation in the order that henceforth, all the plaintiffs will first lodge a protest with the social media intermediaries before approaching the court.
The court also said that it will order the taking down of obscene and profane content but images which were mere reproductions cannot be ordered to be removed at this stage without hearing the parties concerned.
The court also issued summonses to several defendants in the suit.
It was hearing a plea by Devgn seeking to protect his personality rights and restrain online platforms from illegally using his name, images and AI-generated inappropriate and sexually explicit content.
The suit relates to misappropriation, without consent, of various aspects of Devgn's personality, including his name, image, likeness, persona and voice by the defendants for their commercial gains.
The right to publicity, popularly known as personality rights, is the right to protect, control and profit from one's image, name or likeness.
Recently, Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, her husband Abhishek Bachchan, his mother Jaya Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, filmmaker Karan Johar, singer Kumar Sanu, Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, 'Art of Living' founder Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary and podcaster Raj Shamani also approached the high court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights. The court granted them interim relief.
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IndiGo cancels over 200 flights from Delhi, Mumbai on Saturday
Mumbai (PTI): Domestic carrier IndiGo has cancelled over 200 flights from Delhi and Mumbai on Saturday, a day after managing to temporarily secure major relaxations in the second phase of the court-mandated new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, sources said.
Of these cancelled flights, 109 IndiGo flights were cancelled at Mumbai airport, 51 arrivals and 58 departures, and 106 flights at Delhi airport, which included 54 departures and 52 arrivals, they said.
On Friday, when IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights from across airports, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, after maintaining a stoic silence over the grave crisis for three days, apologised in a video message for the major inconvenience caused to passengers due to the disruptions.
ALSO READ: Indigo fiasco: B'luru airport suffers disruptions; over 102 services cancelled, KIAL issues advisory
In the one-way video communication, Elbers also said that the airline was expecting fewer than 1,000 flights on Saturday.
It may be mentioned here that on Friday, DGCA provided temporary relief to IndiGo, which is partially owned by Rahul Bhatia, by way of rolling back the night duty definition to 12 am-5 am from 12 am-6 am earlier, and allowing its pilots to do six night-landings from two earlier, besides other relaxations.
Meanwhile, the pilots' body, Airlines' Pilots Association (ALPA) India, has taken a "strong" objection to the DGCA's "selective and unsafe" relief to IndiGo, saying that the relaxations have not just "destroyed regulatory parity but also placed millions of passengers at "heightened risk".
Following the meeting convened by the Ministry of Civil Aviation with ALPA India and other pilot associations on December 5, the Ministry announced that it has decided to place the implementation of the revised FDTL CAR in abeyance.
"ALPA India expresses its deep concern that this step directly contradicts the Court's directions, which mandate the enforcement of fatigue-mitigation standards rooted in aviation science," the Association said in a statement late Friday.
It stated that keeping the FDTL in abeyance not only undermines judicial authority but also heightens the risk to pilots and passengers by delaying essential fatigue protections.
"We urge the (Civil Aviation) Ministry and the regulator to uphold the Court's order in both letter and spirit and to prioritise the safety of the pilots and travelling public above all commercial considerations," ALPA India said.
ALSO READ: IndiGo cancels over 1,000 flights on Friday; expects situation to normalise by Dec 10-15: CEO
It is worth noting that IndiGo was the first carrier to oppose the new FDTL norms for pilots when they were introduced in January 2024, with a March implementation timeline.
It had been argued that the airlines require more time to put in place due to additional crew requirements. The latest FDTL norms, which entail increased weekly rest periods to 48 hours, extended night hours, and limiting the number of night landings to only two, as against six earlier, were initially also opposed by domestic airlines, including IndiGo and Tata Group-owned Air India.
But they were subsequently rolled out by the DGCA following the Delhi High Court's directives, albeit with a delay of over one year, in a phased manner, and with certain variations for airlines like IndiGo and Air India.
While the first phase of these FDTL norms came into force in July, the second phase, which reduced the number of night landings from six to two earlier, was implemented from November 1.
The norms were originally to be put in place in March 2024.
