Celebrity endorsements and criminal exposure: Reading the SC’s interim protection order

On 15 December 2025, the Supreme Court granted interim protection from arrest to actors Shreyas Talpade and Alok Nath ina cheating and breach-of-trust case arising from the Human Welfare Credit Cooperative Society marketing scheme.

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The petitioners had appeared in promotional material for the society and were subsequently named in multiple FIRs filed across states. The Court's order continues the interim relief granted earlier and raises broader questions about the criminal liability of celebrity endorsers.Details of the case - The FIRs, registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for cheating and criminal breach of trust, allege that the society collected deposits from the public through multilevel marketing and defaulted on repayments. The complainant said people invested because well-known actors promoted the scheme as brand ambassadors. During the hearing, Talpade’s counsel argued that he merely attended an annual event and did not earn money, while Nath’s counsel said the actor’s photograph had been used for a decade without his involvement. A bench of Justices BY. Nagarathna and R. Mahadevan posed a hypothetical question: “If a top actor or a cricketer is giving his advertisement or appearing as a brand ambassador for a company which goes into liquidation or there are criminal cases against the company, will it also go against the cricketer or actor?”. The Court disposed of the writ petition by continuing the interim order of protection until the investigation is complete.