The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the removal of online content found to be violating the personality rights of former Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh, while declining to pass a blanket order for the takedown of future content at this stage.
The single-judge Bench of Justice Jyoti Singh ordered the removal of the URLs specifically identified in Singh’s suit, observing that any future allegedly infringing content could be brought before the Court through appropriate applications.
The Court also directed individuals who uploaded the allegedly derogatory content to remove the identified URLs within a stipulated period. It observed that if they failed to comply, Singh could approach the concerned social media platforms and intermediaries to have the content removed. The intermediaries have been granted three weeks to file their responses. The matter will next be heard on November 13.
The order came on Singh’s suit seeking protection of his personality rights and removal of online content allegedly exploiting his name, image and reputation.
Appearing for Singh, Advocate Gaurav Bahl submitted that several private defendants were commercially exploiting the cricketer’s personality by selling merchandise using his name and likeness. He also pointed to allegedly infringing content on platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Flipkart and Amazon.
During the hearing, Reddit’s counsel submitted that the platform hosted only one post relating to Singh, which had been online for more than two years. Singh’s counsel, however, argued that while the post was old, comments continued to be added.
Reddit further contended that complaints regarding comments on a post concerning Singh’s alleged views on women were more appropriately issues of defamation rather than personality rights.
The Court declined to examine that issue at this stage, noting that the transcript of the post had not been placed on record.
The Court also refused Singh’s request for a direction requiring online platforms to remove “similar or identical” content, observing that intermediaries could not be expected to determine what constituted infringing material.
Singh relied on previous Delhi High Court orders protecting the personality rights of cricketers Abhishek Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Gavaskar in support of his plea for similar relief.
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