Name of the Case: T.V. Today Network Limited v. Google LLC & Ors.
Citation: CS(COMM) 634/2025
Bench: Justice Prathiba M. Singh
Date: 20th June, 2025
The present application has been filed on behalf of the Plaintiff under Order XXXIX Rules 1 and 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure seeking grant of an ad-interim injunction against the Defendants, thereby restraining them from using news clipping, videos, deepfake impersonations, etc. of Ms. Anjana Om Kashyap. The Hon’ble Court, upon due consideration and perusing the YouTube pages in question, observed a clear distinction between the YouTube pages of the Plaintiff No. 1 and the impersonating channel operated by the Defendant No. 2.
The Hon’ble Court observed that the creation and dissemination of such counterfeit YouTube pages, falsely purporting to represent the Plaintiff No. 2 and capitalising their goodwill, reputation, public persona is unlawful. The proliferation of counterfeit YouTube pages of a well-known organisation or a personality could result in enormous damage and dissemination of misinformation as the same would lack editorial control. Moreover, in the area of news broadcasting, it is a well-established principle for the broadcaster and the anchor to ensure that incorrect and misleading news is not disseminated.
Furthermore, the unauthorised use of the name, pictures, voices of the Plaintiff No. 2 is a clear violation of her personality rights. Even where the content is original, the same cannot be disseminated by the third parties other than the Plaintiffs who own the Broadcast Reproduction Rights in all their broadcasts. Hence, the Hon’ble High Court directed the Defendant No. 1 to take down the impugned channel within 48 hours, provide Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) of the impugned channel to the Plaintiff within two weeks and to submit an account of whatever revenues, which have been paid to this channel owner within a period of four weeks1.
