The Delhi High Court has granted interim relief to Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor by restraining several social media accounts and websites from misusing his personality and publicity rights. The order was passed by Justice Tushar Rao Gedela on April 29 in response to a suit filed by the actor.
Arjun Kapoor gets interim relief in personality rights case against online abuse
The court issued an ex-parte ad interim injunction, saying that several defendants were using Kapoor’s name, image and identity without permission for commercial gain. This included the sale of merchandise such as T-shirts and posters, as well as unauthorized event promotion.
“Clearly, no permission or license has been given by the plaintiff to any of the defendants to exploit her personality/publicity rights,” the court said. It further ruled that any such use without consent would be a violation of the actor’s rights.
As part of the order, the court directed tech platforms including Google and Meta to remove the infringing content. The platforms have also been asked to provide basic customer information of the users operating the accounts responsible for sharing such content.
Kapoor’s legal team, led by advocate Praveen Anand, informed the court that his identity was being commercially exploited without his consent. The submissions also highlighted the spread of offensive and explicit content online, including deepfake videos generated by AI.
Taking cognizance of this, the court ordered immediate removal of such material. It said, “Clearly, the defendants who have used AI tools to create videos containing sexually explicit and hateful content are clearly infringing on the personality/publicity rights of the plaintiff. In fact, such videos are obscene and will clearly harm the image and personality rights of the plaintiff not only beyond measure, but also, possibly, irreparably.”
The court also addressed the arguments of intermediaries claiming that some of the content falls under parody or satire. While acknowledging that possibility in limited instances, it held that the majority of the material presented indicated clear violations. “The large number of screenshots placed on record… appear to this court to be prima facie violations,” the bench said.
In its comments, the court recognized Kapoor’s public identity as a valuable personal asset created through his work in films, public appearances and media appearances. It says these attributes act as source identifiers and are protected under personality rights law.
The court has also allowed Kapoor to seek further action if any new cases of violation come to light. The next hearing of the case is to be held on October 10.
