T.V. Today Network Limited Vs Google Llc & Ors. — Delhi HC (2025) — LawSathi Research

T.V. Today Network Limited Vs Google Llc & Ors. — Delhi HC (2025) — LawSathi Research

What the court decided

AI extract

Outcome

Suit decreed in terms of Prayer in Paragraph No. 85(A) and (B) of the Plaint in favour of the Plaintiffs and only against Defendant No. 2 (permanent injunction); Decree Sheet to be drawn up; Suit and pending applications disposed of; damages not pressed.

Issue for consideration

Whether the YouTube Channel '@AnajanaomKashya' run by Defendant No. 2 unauthorisedly used Plaintiff No. 2's photographs and fake videos, including purported news clippings, so as to misappropriate her personality and established identity, warranting a permanent injunction. +1 more

Court's answer

Defendant No. 2 is required to be restrained by way of permanent injunction for unauthorisedly using Plaintiff No. 2's photographs and various fake videos, including purported news clippings, so as to depict them as those of Plaintiff No. 2.

Ratio / Principle

Fake YouTube channels of a well-known organisation or personality are likely to result in enormous damage and dissemination of misinformation as they lack editorial control, and the impugned channel capitalised upon Plaintiff No. 2's reputation in the field of news dissemination.

Key takeaways

No further directions are required against Defendant No. 1 (Google LLC), which has already complied with the order dated 20.06.2025, its Compliance Affidavit being on record.ratio¶10

Detailed headnote1 paragraphs

Personality rights / impersonation — Fake YouTube channel '@AnajanaomKashya' using photographs and fabricated news clippings of Plaintiff No. 2 — Suit by T.V. Today Network Limited & Anr. against Google LLC (Defendant No. 1) and the unknown channel operator (Defendant No. 2) for permanent injunction, mandatory disclosure and damages — Ad-interim injunction and directions dated 20.06.2025 (take-down within 48 hours; Basic Subscriber Information disclosure within two weeks; account of revenues within four weeks) duly complied with by Defendant No. 1 — BSI disclosed Google Account ID 152364892287 in the name of 'Dr. Pooja'; Defendant No. 2 served by email/SMS and proceeded ex-parte — Plaintiffs did not press for damages — Held: the channel unauthorisedly exploited Plaintiff No. 2's photographs, fake videos and reputation in news dissemination; fake channels of well-known organisations or personalities cause enormous damage and misinformation for want of editorial control; permanent injunction warranted — Suit decreed in terms of Paragraphs 85(A) and (B) of the Plaint only against Defendant No. 2; no further directions against Defendant No. 1 (Tejas Karia, J.; 11.11.2025).

$~25

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

CS(COMM) 634/2025 & I.A. 14841/2025 T.V. TODAY NETWORK LIMITED & Anr. .....Plaintiffs Through: Mr. Hrishikesh Baruah, Mr. Kumar Kshitij, Mr. Utkarsh Dwivedi, Mr. Yashaswy Ghosh, Mr. Anurag Mishra, Ms. Pragya Agarwal and Ms. Nishtha Sachan, Advocates.

versus

GOOGLE LLC & ORS. .....Defendants Through: Ms. Mamta R Jha and Ms. Shruttima Ehersa, Advocates for D1.

CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE TEJAS KARIA

O R D E R % 11.11.2025

The Plaintiffs have filed the present Suit for permanent injunction for violation of the intellectual property rights, mandatory disclosure against impersonation and misuse of personality rights owned by the Plaintiffs and for damages.

The Plaintiffs have averred that the unknown person/s arraigned in the Suit as Defendant No. 2 started a YouTube Channel under the name of ‘@AnajanaomKashya’ (“ YouTube Channel ”), which has been using the photographs of Plaintiff No. 2 and various fake videos, including news clippings in a manner so as to depict that the same are of Plaintiff No. 2. However, the YouTube Channel does not belong to either of the Plaintiffs. 3. This Court vide order dated 20.06.2025, after observing that the

CS(COMM) 634/2025

Page 1 of 4

This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 12:43:31

Plaintiffs have made out a prima facie case, granted an ad-interim injunction vide order dated 20.06.2025 and considering that the identity of Defendant No. 2 was unknown passed the following directions:

“(i) Google LLC shall take down the impugned YouTube channel ‘@AnajanaomKashya’ which has been impugned in the present suit within 48 hours.

(ii) The Basic Subscriber Information (‘BSI’) details of the person who has put up this channel, shall be disclosed to the Plaintiff within two weeks. Upon the said information being received, the Plaintiff shall take steps to implead the said person/ entity itself.

(iii) The Defendant No. 1/ Google LLC shall also file an account of whatever revenues, if any, which may have been paid to this channel owner, within a period of four weeks.”

Further, vide order dated 11.08.2025 it was directed that:

“1. The learned Counsel for Defendant No. 1 submits that Defendant No. 1 has complied with the Order dated 20.06.2025 and as far as Defendant No. 1 is concerned, no further directions are required.

2. Defendant No. 1 has submitted the Basic Subscriber Information pertaining to the Google Account ID: 152364892287 belonging to Dr. Pooja pursuant to order dated 20.06.2025.

3. The Registry is directed to issue Summons and Notice through e- Mail on [email protected] and [email protected] and through SMS and WhatsApp on No. +917050340057 returnable on 09.10.2025.

4. List before the learned Joint Registrar on 09.10.2025 and before the Court on 11.11.2025.”

Vide order dated 09.10.2025, the learned Joint Registrar (Judicial) has recorded that the Service Affidavit has been filed by the Plaintiffs and as per the said Service Affidavit, Defendant No. 2 has been served on 07.10.2025 via email. The order dated 09.10.2025 also records the submissions made by the learned Counsel for the Plaintiffs that WhatsApp is not active on Phone No. +91-7050340057 as disclosed by Defendant No. 1, therefore, Summons

CS(COMM) 634/2025

Page 2 of 4

This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 12:43:31

and Notice as per the order dated 11.08.2025 could not be served through WhatsApp, however, an SMS has been sent on Phone No. +91-7050340057. 6. Despite valid service, Defendant No. 2 has not appeared and the Written Statement has also not been filed by Defendant No. 2. Accordingly, Defendant No. 2 is proceeded ex-parte . 7. The learned Counsel for the Plaintiffs submits that the Plaintiffs are not pressing for damages in the present Suit and the Suit be decreed in terms of Paragraph No. 85(A) and (B) of the Plaint. 8. The material placed on record indicates that the Plaintiffs’ grievance arises from the deliberate creation of the YouTube Channel that is using Plaintiff No. 2’s photographs, purported news clippings, etc. without any authorisation from Plaintiff No. 2. The name of YouTube Channel is also suggestive of an intent to misappropriate Plaintiff No. 2’s personality and established identity and to mislead viewers into believing that the YouTube Channel originates from or is endorsed by Plaintiff No. 2. 9. The screenshots and extracts of the YouTube Channel demonstrate that the content is being presented in a manner that capitalises upon Plaintiff No. 2’s reputation in the field of news dissemination. The fake YouTube channels of a well known organisation or a personality are likely to result in enormous damage and dissemination of misinformation as the same would lack editorial control. In the circumstances and considering the material placed on record, it is clear that the YouTube Channel of Defendant No. 2 is unauthorisedly using the photographs of Plaintiff No. 2 and various fake videos, including purported news clippings etc., in a manner so as to depict that the same are of Plaintiff No. 2 and, therefore, Defendant No. 2 is required to be restrained by way of permanent injunction.

CS(COMM) 634/2025

Page 3 of 4

This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 12:43:31

Defendant No. 1 has already complied with the order dated 20.06.2025 passed by this Court, and the Compliance Affidavit filed by Defendant No. 1 is on record. No further directions against Defendant No. 1 are required.

Accordingly, in view of the above, the Suit is decreed in terms of Prayer in Paragraph No. 85(A) and (B) of the Plaint in favour of the Plaintiffs and only against Defendant No. 2. Let the Decree Sheet be drawn up accordingly. 12. The Suit is disposed of in the aforesaid terms. Pending applications, if any, also stand disposed of.

TEJAS KARIA, J

NOVEMBER 11, 2025/sms

CS(COMM) 634/2025

Page 4 of 4

This is a digitally signed order. The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 12:43:31