Context:
Delhi High Court granted protection to personality rights of a famous Bollywood actor
Personality Rights:
- Right of a person to protect his/her personality
- Includes name, voice, signature, images, or any other feature easily identified as markers of personality.
- Statutory backing – Not explicitly mentioned in any statute in India but implied under right to privacy
- 2 components –
- Right to publicity – Right to protect one’s image and likeness from being commercially exploited without permission
- Governed by – Statutes like Trade Marks Act, 1999 and Copyright Act, 1957.
- Right to privacy – Right to not have one’s personality represented publicly without permission.
- Governed under – Article 21 of the Constitution and the Supreme Court judgment in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy Case (2017).
- Right to publicity – Right to protect one’s image and likeness from being commercially exploited without permission
- Posthumous Personality Rights – Defamation suit can be filed under the Indian Penal Code for derogatory representation of any deceased person’s reputation or their family.
- Important Judicial Verdicts –
- Arun Jaitley vs Network Solutions Private Limited and Ors case, 2011 (Delhi HC) – Popularity or fame of an individual will be no different on the internet than in reality.
- Deepa Jayakumar vs A.L. Vijay, 2019 (Madras HC) – Personality, publicity, and privacy rights of an individual cannot be inherited by a person’s legal heir after his/her death.
Source: The Indian Express
Previous Year Question
‘Right to Privacy’ is protected under which Article of the Constitution of India?
[UPSC Civil Service Exam – 2021 Prelims]
(a) Article 15
(b) Article 19
(c) Article 21
(d) Article 29
Answer: (c)
