India, Jan. 12 -- The Madras High Court on Monday protected the personality rights of actor and Rajya Sabha MP Kamal Haasan and prohibited any illegal use of his "image, likeness and name for commercial purposes," while making it clear that permissible creative expression such as "satire and caricature" was not being restrained.

Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy passed the interim 'John Doe' order after hearing submissions from Hassan's counsel, senior advocate Satish Parasaran, on the unauthorised merchandising and circulation of morphed images and videos using the actor's likeness.

"Senior counsel (for Hassan) invited my attention to several photographs of morphed images..Submits that these images are causing incalculable damage to his...