Delhi High Court Orders Removal Of Unauthorised Content Using Gautam Gambhir's Identity

 

The Delhi High Court has directed the protection of the personality rights of the Indian cricket team head coach and former Member of Parliament Gautam Gambhir. The court ordered action against the unauthorised use of his name, image, and content across social media platforms. A bench of Justice Jyoti Singh stated that platforms such as Meta and Google must remove any misleading or unauthorised content related to Gambhir that uses his identity without consent.

 

According to the petition, since 2025, several misleading posts and videos about Gambhir, himself a former India opener, have been circulated online without permission. These included false claims about his resignation and fabricated videos suggesting he attacked a player. The plea also alleged misuse of his identity through Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated and deepfake content.

 

Gambhir, who was part of the 2011 ODI World Cup-winning Indian team, in his petition, accused multiple social media accounts, platforms, and e-commerce websites of exploiting his name, voice, and persona without authorisation. The plea further stated that such content included fake announcements and fabricated remarks attributed to him, which led to commercial exploitation of his identity.

 

The petition sought damages of Rs 2.5 crore for violation of his personality rights. The Delhi High Court has previously passed similar orders protecting the personality rights of several public figures, including Sonakshi Sinha, Baba Ramdev, Kajol, Vivek Oberoi, Pawan Kalyan, Sunil Gavaskar, Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn, Jaya Bachchan, Sudhir Chaudhary, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Nagarjuna, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Karan Johar.

Under Gambhir, India won the 2025 Champions Trophy and the 2026 T20 World Cup. The former left-handed batter hails from Delhi.