Delhi High Court Grants Interim Relief to Physics Wallah Founder Alakh Pandey
The Delhi High Court has granted interim protection to Physics Wallah founder Alakh Pandey against the unauthorised use of his name and image, while cautioning that personality rights cannot be applied so broadly as to suppress parody, satire, or caricature.
In an interim order passed on August 5, Justice Anup J. Bhambhani ruled that protection would be limited strictly to three categories of alleged violations: sexually vulgar content, unauthorised commercial exploitation of Pandey's personality, and impersonation. The court also ordered online platforms to take down the offending material identified in the case.
Pandey had approached the high court alleging that several online platforms and digital users were commercially exploiting his identity without consent. According to his petition, his name, image, and other personality attributes were being misused across social media posts, sticker packs, videos, websites, and other digital formats to drive monetisation. He also highlighted that a portion of the circulated material was vulgar and sexually explicit.
While providing relief against commercial exploitation and vulgarity, the court highlighted the risk of overextending legal protections over an individual's persona. Justice Bhambhani observed that the concept of personality rights claimed in the matter appeared overbroad and susceptible to misapplication.
The court stressed that personality rights must not be used to suppress information regarding wrongdoing or wipe out legitimate forms of creative and critical expression. The judge noted that forms of public expression such as lampooning, caricature, and parody remain protected as long as they do not amount to commercial exploitation of an individual's personality or publicity rights.
The ruling comes amid a series of similar petitions before the Delhi High Court by notable public figures seeking to safeguard their publicity rights. Others who have recently secured interim protection from the court include actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Salman Khan, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, podcaster Raj Shamani, Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, and cricketer Abhishek Sharma.
