Published on: 21 September, 2025 20:41 IST
The Delhi High Court has stepped in to safeguard filmmaker Karan Johar’s personality rights, ordering the removal of online content that targeted him with abusive and disparaging material. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora passed the order on Friday, noting that memes, videos, and social media posts on various platforms carried offensive language that could damage Johar’s reputation and brand value. The court observed that as a public figure, Johar was entitled to seek legal protection to prevent such misuse.
The court also found that certain social media accounts mentioned in Johar’s plea were operating under his name without authorization. Justice Arora held that such usage had the potential to mislead the public into believing these were Johar’s official accounts. Consequently, the court allowed for their removal, recognizing Johar’s right to object to unauthorized impersonation.
Justice Arora ruled that Johar had made out a prima facie case for the grant of an ex parte ad-interim injunction. The court stated that failure to restrain the misuse would cause “irreparable loss and harm” to his reputation. Accordingly, defendants Perfect Privacy LLC and Giphy were restrained from publishing any material that infringes Johar’s personality rights.
Apart from social media content, the court also targeted websites misusing Johar’s identity. It directed the suspension of a domain hosting an AI Voice Swap Generator linked to Johar’s name. GoDaddy India Web Services Pvt. Ltd., the registrar, was ordered to suspend and lock the disputed domain. The website https://beta.opedia.ai/ was also directed to be taken down.
In his suit, Johar alleged that several entities, including unidentified “John Does,” were exploiting his name and image for commercial purposes. He claimed that his identity was being misused for merchandise sales, impersonation, and fake profiles. The defendants in the case were represented by lawyers Nirupam Lodha, Kshitiz Parashar, and Gautam Wadhwa, among others.
Johar’s legal victory follows similar court actions in favor of other celebrities, including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan, who have also sought judicial intervention to curb unauthorized use of their name and image online.