Context: Delhi High Court protected Jaya Bachchan’s personality rights, restraining misuse of her name, images, persona on social media, YouTube channels, websites for commercial gains.
About Personality Rights
- Refer to right of individual to control unauthorized use of personal attributes like name, image, voice, likeness, distinctive expressions.
- Include both commercial and non-commercial aspects ensuring comprehensive protection of personal identity and attributes.
- Not expressly mentioned in any statute in India requiring judicial interpretation for recognition and enforcement comprehensively.
Components of Personality Rights
- Right to Publicity
- Right to protect one’s image and likeness from being commercially exploited without permission ensuring control over commercial use.
- Partially and indirectly governed by statutes like Trademarks Act, 1999 and Copyright Act, 1957 providing limited protection.
- Right to Privacy
- Right to not have one’s personality represented publicly without permission ensuring privacy and control over public representation.
- Broadly governed under Article 21 of Constitution and through Supreme Court judgment in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) Case (2017).
- Posthumous Personality Rights
- No specific statutory recognition protecting posthumous personality rights showing legal gap in India’s intellectual property framework.
- However, Emblems Act, 1950 prohibits commercial use of images of Mahatma Gandhi and Prime Minister ensuring limited protection.
- Deepa Jayakumar v. AL Vijay (2019): personality right, reputation, privacy enjoyed during lifetime comes to end after death.
Important Judicial Pronouncements
- ICC Development v. Arvee Enterprises (2003, Delhi HC)
- Any effort to take away publicity right from individuals would be violative of Articles 19 and 21 ensuring constitutional protection.
- Arun Jaitley v. Network Solutions (2011, Delhi HC)
- Popularity or fame of individual will be no different on internet than in reality ensuring online personality rights protection.
- Rajinikanth v. Varsha Productions (2015, Madras HC)
- Madras HC ruled: using celebrity’s name, image, or style without consent violates personality rights ensuring celebrity protection.
Conclusion
- Absence of specific legislation and inadequate protection under IP laws constitutes major challenge in enforcement of personality rights.
- Comprehensive legal framework and empowerment of government agencies to actively monitor and block AI-generated impersonation is need of the hour.