Karan Johar moves Delhi HC seeking protection of personality rights

The filmmaker has alleged that several websites and social media pages were misusing his name and images to raise funds

by e4m Staff
Published: Sep 15, 2025 12:37 PM | 2 min read

Filmmaker Karan Johar has approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection of his personality rights, alleging that several websites and social media pages were misusing his name and images to raise funds.

His counsel told the court, “These are websites where my photos are downloaded. Various pages on various platforms are in my name.”

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, opposed a blanket injunction, with its advocate stating, “These are ordinary people having comments and discussions. Now to drag them to Court for making an ordinary joke could open the floodgates for litigation.”

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora observed, “You have to look at two things, one is disparagement, which is different from memes. Memes are not necessarily disparaging. Then somebody is selling merchandise. Third is your domain name. Please specifically identify it, the Court will consider it.”

The judge further indicated that take-down orders could be passed for specific pages and advised Johar to notify platforms of future violations before approaching the Court.

The matter is listed for further hearing at 4pm today.

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Last week, actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan each secured interim relief from the Delhi High Court to protect their personality rights. The court has restrained several websites and online platforms from unauthorized commercial use of their names, images, likenesses, voice, persona, and signature, including content generated by AI, deepfakes, morphed or inappropriate material.

The judgments held that such misuse dilutes their reputation and goodwill, causes irreparable harm both financially and with respect to dignity, and could mislead the public about endorsements.