The Bombay High Court granted interim relief to Asha Bhosle against AI platforms and online sellers for cloning her voice and misusing her image without consent. The Court held this violated her personality and publicity rights and her moral rights under Section 38B of the Copyright Act. Defendants were restrained from using her identity and ordered to remove infringing content. Relying on constitutional privacy rights, moral rights, and passing off principles, the Court protected her control over her persona, reflecting a growing legal response to AI-based misuse of celebrity identities.
The Supreme Court has placed a limited stay on the Bombay High Court’s 7/11 Mumbai train blasts acquittal judgment, stating it cannot be used as a precedent in other cases. A bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and N. Kotiswar Singh balanced the acquitted individuals’ liberty with the State’s concerns about the ruling’s wider impact on MCOCA trials. While the acquittals remain, the Court will hear Maharashtra’s appeal later. The High Court had earlier acquitted all 11 accused, citing investigative lapses and unreliable evidence. The Supreme Court’s move quarantines the ruling’s legal effect without reversing the acquittals.
