Bollywood actress Janhvi Kapoor moved the Delhi High Court on Tuesday seeking protection of her personality rights.

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani said that it will pass an ex parte ad-interim order to remove or takedown obscene and profane content against the actress, but questioned if a blanket order restraining all the fanpages can be passed at all.

The judge remarked that while obscene content posted by the fanpages can be directed to be removed but such direction regarding critical criticism or anything which is not obscene needs consideration.

Accordingly, the Court said that it was inclined to give relief to Kapoor qua three categories of content- ex facie pornographic and obscene; ex facie seen to be monetising directly her personality rights and those using her likeness and name to promote sale of merchandise or services.

“I want you all (counsels) to assist me to give sanity to the concept of personality rights. It is going out of hand,” the judge orally remarked.

During the hearing today, Advocate Asav Rajan appearing for Kapoor said that the actress is aggrieved by pornographic content, account's impersonating her on social media and images generated through AI technology and deepfakes.

He said that Kapoor is also against fake social media profiles on Meta Platforms and X Corp (formerly Twitter) which contain misleading information against her.

The counsel submitted that the traction on social media concerning Kapoor must relate to her personality only, including commercial exploitation, and that no other individual can indulge in the same.

He said that the infringing links concerning the fanpages is nothing short of profanity, including obscene photographs.

Hearing the same, the Court remarked that obscene content and content using Kapoor's personality for commercial purposes can be ordered to be taken down but questioned if a dynamic injunction be passed qua any other impugned content.

“A part of it may be satire or critical of your work. Fanpages is your monopoly. Are you sure?… If they are monetising or there is commercial exploitation then yes but not all fanpages are (offending),” the judge remarked.

“How do we draw the line? In law, we can only do so much and no more. To completely restrain everything cannot be the approach. Where there is obscenity or monetising or extremely egregious or inappropriate content I am with you but how can you shut down all fanclubs? Who is immune from all this today? Anybody who is in public domain they are being abused left right and centre. So what? We are abused, that's different. But you are in public domain. We will draw a line but where do we put the line?… Today many people are trying to hide their wrongdoings by saying celebrity or personality rights. How can court allow that?,” the judge said.

The counsel for Kapoor said that he has classified the content under the head of impersonating the actress' account and that such pages cannot exist as they are engaging in commercial utilization of her personality elements and posting obscene photos.

Advocate Varun Pathak appearing for Meta Platforms said that more than 4,000 urls have been filed by Kapoor and that not all the links were profane or obscene. He said that while egregious content can go, other over broad content must be narrowed down in clear categories.

Accordingly, the Court asked Kapoor's counsel to divide the claims in the broad categories and that an appropriate order will be passed.

It may be noted that the Court has been protecting the personality rights of actress Tabu, cricketers Abhishek Sharma and Yuvraj Singh, political figures like Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Pawan Kalyan.

It has also protected rights of entrepreneur Aman Gupta, Telugu actor Allu Arjun, Malayalam actor Mohanlal, spiritual preacher Aniruddhacharya, singer Jubin Nautiyal, former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, and actors Kajol Devgan, R Madhavan and NTR Junior. Similar suit has been filed by actor Salman Khan.

The coordinate benches have also 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, the Court also 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 Court 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.

India Law through its partners Asav Rajan and Abha Shah represented Kapoor.

Title: Janhvi Kapoor v. John Does & Ors