The Delhi HC granted relief to protect Karan Johar’s personality rights. The director, like Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, had approached the higher court.
Published: September 17, 2025 8:08 PM IST
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday, September 17, verbally indicated its intention to grant interim relief to filmmaker Karan Johar on his plea seeking protection against infringement of his personality rights. Johar has alleged that various entities, including unidentified John Does, are misusing his name, image, voice and material related to his identity for financial gain without his permission. He cited social media posts, fake profiles, obscene GIFs, merchandise and misleading domain names.
Karan Johar gets big relief in personality rights case from Delhi HC
Karan Johar’s lawyer, senior advocate Rajasekhar Rao, told the court, “This content has been created with the intention of deliberately damaging my client’s identity. The purpose is to draw traffic and monetize it.” A single bench of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora orally said, “I will pass a detailed order on the interim relief application (IA) and an injunction will be granted.” The court also gave the following directions: Google, Meta, and X (formerly Twitter) should be directed to provide IT logs and basic customer details of the infringing accounts.
Summons to be issued by Delhi HC to online platforms
Summons were issued to Giphy, Pinterest and other online platforms (defendants 2-5 and 7-10). The lawyer for Redbubble (defendant 11) informed the court that they would initiate the process of removing the infringing content within a week. Summons have not been issued to defendants 11-16 at this time, but will be considered at the next hearing.
In the previous hearing, the court had asked Karan Johar to provide a clear list of the social media posts or URLs against which action was sought. The court had also asked for clarification on the categories of content – such as defamatory, obscene, or misleading.
It is worth noting that the Delhi HC recently passed orders protecting the personality rights of actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and actor Abhishek Bachchan. The court stated that the unauthorised use of their names, images, and voices through technological tools like AI violated their right to privacy.
Story Highlights
- Delhi HC to grant interim relief to Karan Johar over misuse of his name, image, and voice.
- Johar alleged that fake profiles, obscene GIFs, and misleading domains were used without consent.
- Delhi HC directed Google, Meta, and X to share details of infringing accounts.
- Summons issued to Giphy, Pinterest; case follows similar orders for Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan.
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