Delhi High Court bars alleged impersonators from misusing Akasa Air trademarks

The Delhi High Court has granted interim relief to SNV Aviation Private Limited, the operator of Akasa Air, restraining multiple entities from allegedly impersonating the airline and misusing its trademarks to run recruitment-related scams, as per court records.

As reported by Bar and Bench, Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora passed the interim order in a commercial suit filed by SNV Aviation against several entities, seeking a permanent injunction, damages, rendition of accounts and other ancillary reliefs on grounds of trademark infringement, passing off and unfair competition. The court, after reviewing the material placed on record, stated that a prima facie case had been made out in favour of the plaintiff and observed that the acts of the defendants in approaching unsuspecting members of the public, falsely claiming to offer employment on behalf of Akasa Air and demanding process fees for such employment, amounted to misrepresentation, deception and passing off, noting that the airline does not follow any such recruitment practice.

Akasa Air informed the court that the defendants had contacted members of the public through telephone calls and emails, falsely presenting themselves as agents or employees of the airline and offering job opportunities while demanding payment of so-called process fees under the guise of recruitment. The airline stated that the entities had unauthorisedly used its registered trademarks, including AKASA and AKASA AIR, along with deceptively similar marks such as AKASHA and AKAASA, and had registered infringing domain names to mislead job seekers into believing that the communications originated from the airline.

The airline further informed the court that it had received multiple complaints from the public regarding such fraudulent communications and said that these activities had caused serious reputational harm, loss of goodwill and erosion of public trust in its brand.

On December 22, the court restrained defendants numbered 1 to 18 in the suit from using Akasa Air’s trademarks or any identical or deceptively similar marks in any manner, including through domain names, email addresses or recruitment-related communications. The court also directed the suspension and locking of specified domain names by the concerned registrars, including hrakasaair.com, akaasaservices.com and akasaairltd.com.

In addition, the court ordered the disclosure of KYC details and the blocking of mobile numbers linked to the alleged impersonators, directing the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Department of Telecommunications to issue necessary instructions to telecom service providers. The court also directed the disclosure of KYC details and blocking of specified UPI IDs and associated bank accounts linked to the alleged impersonators.

The matter has been listed before the Joint Registrar on February 3, 2026, and before the court on May 22, 2026. Akasa Air was represented by advocates Essenese Obhan, Ayesha Guhathakurta and Urvika Aggarwal of Obhan and Associates.