New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted interim protection to former Indian cricketer and veteran commentator Sunil Gavaskar, restraining multiple websites and online platforms from unauthorised commercial use of his name, image, voice, and persona.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora also barred the defendants from exploiting Gavaskar’s personality traits using artificial intelligence tools, including deepfake technology, and ordered the removal of obscene and objectionable content circulating online in his name.

The court directed that the URLs hosting such offensive material be taken down within 72 hours by the concerned websites.

In the event of non-compliance, social media intermediaries were instructed to remove the content immediately. The matter has been listed for further hearing on May 22.

The order follows an earlier direction issued on December 12, when the high court asked social media intermediaries to act within seven days on Gavaskar’s plea seeking protection of his personality and publicity rights. At that time, the court had instructed Gavaskar’s counsel to first approach the intermediaries with specific grievances and directed the platforms to treat the complaint under the Information Technology Rules, 2021.

During Tuesday’s hearing, the court was informed that while some objectionable content had been removed, several links remained accessible online, prompting the court to issue stricter directions.

Gavaskar approached the high court seeking to restrain the unauthorised use of his name, images, likeness, and persona by social media platforms and e-commerce websites for commercial gain without his consent.

Personality rights, also referred to as publicity rights, allow an individual to control, protect, and commercially benefit from their identity, including name, image, voice, and likeness.

In recent months, several prominent public figures — including actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn, R Madhavan, filmmaker Karan Johar, singer Kumar Sanu, Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, and podcaster Raj Shamani — have sought similar relief from the Delhi High Court.

Interim protection was granted in these cases as well. Bollywood actor Salman Khan, Telugu superstar NTR Rao Junior, and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan have also moved the Delhi High Court seeking protection of their personality rights.