Delhi High Court defers cricketer Abhishek Sharma's personality rights plea due to evidence discrepancies

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday declined to grant immediate relief to Indian cricketer Abhishek Sharma in his suit seeking protection of his personality rights and removal of allegedly AI-generated and defamatory online content. The court cited discrepancies in the material placed before it.

Justice Jyoti Singh directed Sharma to file an additional affidavit with screenshots that correctly match the URLs listed in the case record. The matter was posted for hearing on July 9.

Questioning the inconsistencies, the court stated, “There is a real mess up here. You file an affidavit with screenshot matching with your table. Screenshot is way different from what you are showing. I cannot pass an order like this.”

Sharma sought the removal of online content, including AI-generated material, that he claims misuses his name, image, and identity. Meta, his legal representative, indicated that two of the eight cited URLs were no longer accessible and argued that the list of infringing links had grown significantly, posing compliance challenges.

The case follows a recent High Court ruling on a similar matter, where it refused blanket protection for personality rights, emphasizing that not all online content constitutes a violation and that public figures must tolerate satire within legal limits. The court directed the removal of specific defamatory content in that instance.