DOCTORS IN THE DEEPFAKE ERA: DR. DEVI PRASAD SHETTY v. MEDECINE ME & ORS.

This case comment examines the 2024 Delhi High Court ruling granting cardiac surgeon Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty and Narayana Health an ex parte injunction against anonymous Facebook pages that used AI-generated deepfakes of his image, voice, and trademarks to falsely endorse unverified health products. It analyses the court's two-pronged test for personality rights (public recognition plus identifiability) and its parallel trademark infringement findings, then situates the judgment within India's uncodified personality-rights jurisprudence noting its extension beyond entertainment-industry precedents into healthcare, where deepfake endorsements pose acute public-safety risks. The piece concludes that while the ruling is a significant judicial milestone, India still lacks a dedicated statutory framework to define personality rights and balance them against legitimate uses like satire and parody.