After Bachchans’, Karan Johar approaches Delhi HC to protect personality rights

New Delhi: Following similar actions by Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan, filmmaker and television personality Karan Johar has approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection of his personality rights, according to the bar and bench.

During the hearing, Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao, representing Johar, said that his client’s name and images were being misused across various websites and social media platforms to raise funds.

"These are websites where my photos are downloaded. Various pages on various [social media] platforms are in my name," Rao stated.

Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, told the Court that many of the flagged comments were not defamatory and cautioned that passing a broad injunction could open the floodgates to litigation. 

As per the report Advocate Varun Pathak noted, "These are ordinary people having comments and having discussion. Now to drag them to Court for making an ordinary joke."

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora observed that not all fan pages could be blocked or taken down automatically. The Court suggested that take-down orders could be issued for specific pages, and Johar could notify the platform of any similar pages in future.

"If they don't, you come to court," Justice Arora added.

Following Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the case comes after the Delhi High Court’s interim order protecting their personality rights, which restrained online platforms from using their names, images or AI-generated content, citing dilution of goodwill and violation of dignity.

The matter is scheduled for further hearing later on Monday.