This week in Indian law: The Mediation Act 2023 received Presidential assent, creating India's first standalone mediation framework. The Delhi High Court granted a sweeping personality rights order protecting Anil Kapoor against AI deepfakes and ruled that storytelling formats cannot be monopolised through copyright. 6 significant legal developments this week across legislative policy, technology law, and intellectual property.
Top story
India Enacts Mediation Act 2023: First Standalone ADR Framework
Category: legislative-policy | Date: 15 September 2023 | Source: Gazette of India
The Mediation Act 2023 received Presidential assent on September 15, becoming India's first comprehensive standalone legislation governing mediation. The Act creates the Mediation Council of India to oversee mediator registration and training, provides for pre-litigation mediation in certain categories of disputes, establishes the enforceability of mediated settlement agreements, and sets a 120-day timeline (extendable by 60 days) for mediation proceedings.
Why it matters: The Act fundamentally changes India's dispute resolution landscape by creating institutional infrastructure for mediation. Courts are expected to increase mediation referrals, and commercial disputes in particular will see mandatory pre-litigation mediation in many categories. Practitioners should note that mediated settlement agreements will carry the force of a court decree, making mediation outcomes directly enforceable without separate execution proceedings.
Read more: Veritect analysis
Court judgments
Delhi HC Grants Sweeping Personality Rights Order Against AI Deepfakes
Court: Delhi High Court | Bench: Justice Prathiba M. Singh | Date: 20 September 2023
Justice Prathiba M. Singh of the Delhi High Court in Anil Kapoor v. Simply Life India & Ors. granted one of the most comprehensive personality rights orders in Indian legal history. The order protects the actor's name, likeness, voice, image, and persona from AI-generated deepfakes, unauthorised merchandise, and commercial exploitation. The Court invoked Article 21 rights, the Copyright Act, the Trade Marks Act, and the IT Act to construct a multi-layered protection framework.
Key point: This is India's most comprehensive judicial order on AI deepfakes and personality rights. It establishes that Indian law provides robust protection against AI-generated misuse of an individual's persona, even in the absence of specific legislation on AI or deepfakes.
Delhi HC: No Copyright Monopoly Over Storytelling Platform Format
Court: Delhi High Court | Date: 18 September 2023
The Delhi High Court ruled that the format of a storytelling platform cannot be monopolised through copyright protection. In the dispute between Humans of Bombay and People of India, the Court held that the concept of sharing personal stories from ordinary people is an idea, not an original literary or artistic expression eligible for copyright protection under the Copyright Act 1957.
Key point: Digital content creators cannot claim copyright over broad content formats or concepts. Protection extends only to specific original expression, not to the underlying idea or format of presenting user-generated narratives.
Also this week
- Special Session of Parliament begins September 18 — The five-day Special Session was set to commence with growing expectation that the Women's Reservation Bill (a constitutional amendment for 33% reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state legislatures) would be the centrepiece.
- SEBI enforcement continues — SEBI maintained its active enforcement posture against market intermediaries and insider trading violations.
- CBI jurisdiction post-Section 6A — Following the Constitution Bench verdict voiding Section 6A DSPE Act, the CBI began reassessing pending and potential investigations against senior officers that had previously been procedurally barred.
Looking ahead
- September 18-22: Special Session of Parliament — Women's Reservation Bill expected
- September 22: SEBI enforcement actions and insider trading settlements expected
- September 28: Women's Reservation Bill Presidential assent if passed during Special Session
- October: SC to hear same-sex marriage matter and Adani-Hindenburg arguments
This is the Veritect Weekly Legal Roundup for Week 37 of 2023. For daily updates, visit our legal news page. Subscribe to receive this roundup every Monday morning.
Veritect provides this content for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.