Delhi High Court Passes John Doe Order Protecting Personality Rights Of Actor NTR Junior

The Delhi High Court has passed a john doe order protecting the personality rights of actor Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, popularly known as NTR Junior.Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora observed that Rao is a well-known face in India who has gained immense goodwill and reputation over a course of a successful career and has acquired a celebrity status. “Therefore, prima facie, the Plaintiff's personality traits and/or parts thereof, including the Plaintiff's name, likeness, and image are protectable elements of the Plaintiff's personality rights. The Plaintiff is entitled to seek injunction against the use of his personality rights by third parties for selling merchandise for their commercial gains, without his authorisation,” the Court said. It added that is a known and recognised actor whose name, image, and likeness have acquired goodwill through decades of professional achievement and brand endorsements. The Court said that Rao has public association uniquely tied to his identities and his reputation amongst the public not limited to his fans.The judge directed the defendants from directly or indirectly using his personality rights by using his name, photographs or creating any merchandise product through any format, including AI and GIFs. The Court also ordered take down of various listings selling merchandise using the actor's personality traits unauthorizedly. “If any website/aggrieved party, which is not primarily an infringing party, is blocked/affected in pursuance of this Order, it is permitted to approach the Court by giving an undertaking that it does not intend to do any illegal dissemination of the content, which infringes the personality rights of the Plaintiff and the Court would consider modifying the injunction if the facts and circumstances, so warrants,” the Court said. Also, the Court directed the e commerce platforms, including Amazon, to file a reply and place on record the governing policy adopted by them for entertaining and deciding complaints pertaining by a party with regard to infringement of registered trademarks and copyright as well as unauthorized use of the image and likeness of a person and for sale of merchandize.The matter will now be heard on May 19, 2026.The Court had earlier directed the social media platforms and e commerce platforms to treat the actor's suit as a complaint under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.Recently, the judge had passed similar orders protecting personality rights of former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, and bollywood actor R Madhavan. Similar suits have been filed by Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Pawan Kalyan and actor Salman Khan.The coordinate benches have passed orders protecting the personality rights of “The Art of Living” foundation founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Telugu actor Nagarjuna, Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and film producer Karan Johar.Notably, Justice Arora recently protected the personality rights of journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, who had sought relief regarding the circulation of allegedly misleading and AI-generated videos against him on social media.The judge also passed a john doe order protecting the personality rights of podcaster Raj Shamani, observing that he is a known face in India, especially in the field of content creation.Title: NANDAMURI TARAKA RAMA RAO v. ASHOK KUMAR / JOHN DOE AND ORSClick here to read order

Delhi High Court Passes John Doe Order Protecting Personality Rights Of Actor NTR Junior

Nupur Thapliyal

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