Delhi HC orders takedown of obscene content using Janhvi Kapoor’s identity

MUMBAI: Janhvi Kapoor’s digital persona has found its legal line in the sand. The Delhi High Court has directed the removal of online material that is prima facie obscene, pornographic or commercially exploiting the actor’s personality rights, while stopping short of putting every fan page under the digital axe.

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani passed the interim order while hearing Kapoor’s suit seeking protection of her personality rights. The actor had approached the court over more than 5,000 webpages and social media posts, including alleged AI-generated pornographic material, impersonation accounts, fake booking agencies and chatbots that allegedly used her identity without consent.

The court, however, found some of the reliefs sought by Kapoor to be too broad. It asked her legal team to submit a detailed chart identifying webpages carrying content that is “ex facie pornographic, obscene, prurient, lascivious”, as well as material directly monetising her personality through the sale of goods or services.

The court indicated that it was inclined to grant relief against obscene material, unauthorised commercial exploitation and content using Kapoor’s name or likeness to promote products and services.

But when it came to fan pages, the court pressed pause. Justice Bhambhani expressed reservations about ordering their blanket removal, noting that such pages can contain praise, criticism, satire or general discussion about a public figure. A sweeping restriction, the court suggested, could raise broader concerns around freedom of expression.

The court also declined Kapoor’s request for a dynamic injunction that would automatically cover future instances of alleged infringement. The issue, it noted, requires a careful balancing of personality rights against the right to comment on public figures.

Another wrinkle in the case concerns copyright. The court examined whether selling a copyrighted photograph, artwork or other creative work featuring a celebrity would automatically amount to commercial exploitation of that celebrity’s identity.

Justice Bhambhani observed that copyright generally belongs to the creator of the work, such as a photographer or artist, indicating that courts must weigh those rights separately against personality-rights claims.

Meta, meanwhile, opposed parts of Kapoor’s petition. Its counsel argued that reviewing and verifying thousands of links identified in the suit would be difficult in practice and contended that AI-generated images are not automatically prohibited under the law.

The case adds to a growing line of Delhi High Court proceedings involving the misuse of celebrity identities online. The court has recently granted personality-rights protection to public figures including Tabu, Sonakshi Sinha, Allu Arjun, Mohanlal, Arjun Kapoor, Ravi Kishan, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh.

The Janhvi Kapoor case, however, draws a particularly important boundary: protecting a celebrity from obscene content and unauthorised commercial use does not necessarily mean removing every online space where people discuss, praise, parody or criticise them.

In an internet where an identity can be copied, monetised or digitally manufactured in seconds, the court is now being asked to decide not only what gets taken down, but where the takedown should stop.