Mumbai: Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar has moved the Delhi High Court seeking protection of his personality rights, alleging rampant misuse of his name, photographs, and likeness on social media platforms and websites without consent.
The case was heard today by Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, when Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao appeared for Johar and alleged that his name was being misused to raise funds.
Appearing for Johar, Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao argued that the filmmaker’s identity was being exploited, with his pictures and name being misused to raise funds and operate unauthorised fan pages.
“There is a line between making fun and exploitation. The more the memes, the more viral it is, the more money you make. I have a right to ensure that none uses my persona or characteristics without my consent,” Rao contended.
Johar pointed out that “various pages on various platforms are in my name,” stressing that the misuse extended beyond memes to monetised activity.
Justice Arora noted the concerns and indicated that the Court could pass take-down orders for specific infringing pages, while cautioning against granting a blanket injunction.
The Judge clarified that Johar was free to return to Court if fresh violations arose, remarking: “If they don’t act, you come to Court.”
Emphasising a focused approach, Justice Arora observed: “Disparagement, obscenity, misuse of personality rights, domain names, we can take it up. Someone is selling merchandise. These are three things: if you specifically identify, this Court will order.”
The Bench also indicated that a mechanism could be put in place to address future violations.
“We can ask them to take action within 24 hours,” said Justice Arora.
“The only thing we have to do is, when we pass the order today, it will be for specific pages. For any other pages, you can give them a notice, and they will take them down. In case they do not take them down, you can come back to Court,” added Justice Arora.
Counsel for Meta Platforms, Advocate Varun Pathak, cautioned against sweeping orders, arguing that many flagged posts were not defamatory.
“Passing a blanket injunction will open floodgates for litigation,” he said, warning that ordinary users who post jokes or fan content could be unfairly penalised.
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Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora agreed and said that not every fan page can be ordered to be blocked or taken down.
“Memes are not necessarily disparaging. We cannot have an open-ended injunction.”
She asked Johar’s counsel to categorise the alleged violations, distinguishing between disparagement, merchandise sales, and domain misuse, so that only specific instances could be targeted.