Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan had moved to the Delhi High Court seeking protection of their personality rights, and the court had given the order in their favour. Now, filmmaker Karan Johar has approached the Delhi HC for the protection of his personality rights. According to Bar And Bench, the case was heard by the court on Monday.
Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao, who represented Karan, alleged that the filmmaker's name was being misused to raise funds. In his appeal, Karan has said, "These are websites where my photos are downloaded. Various pages on various [social media] platforms are in my name."
Meta Platforms told the Court that many of the comments mentioned in Johar’s case are not defamatory. Advocate Varun Pathak argued that giving a blanket ban on such comments could lead to a flood of similar cases.
Pathak said, "These are ordinary people having comments and having discussion. Now to drag them to Court for making an ordinary joke."
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora agreed with Pathak and said, “Mr Rao, you have to look at two things, one is disparagement, which is different from memes. Memes are not necessarily disparaging. Then somebody is selling merchandise. Third is your domain name. Please specifically identify it, the Court will consider it. I think Mr Pathak is right, it cannot be every fan page. We cannot have an open-ended injunction.”
Rao further argued that it is Karan's right to decide whether he can have only one fan page. "There is a line between making fun...The platform becomes responsible. The more the memes, the more viral it is, the more money you make...I have a right to ensure that nobody uses my persona, or my face, characteristics without my consent. The fact that I chose to look the other way does not give any carte blanche to others," he said.
The matter will be heard on Monday at 4 pm.
