Delhi High Court grants Kapoor sisters protection from obscene content, questions limits of personality rights
Khushi and Janhvi Kapoor secure court orders against defamatory online material and unauthorized commercial use of their identities, as judiciary raises concerns about expanding personality rights claims in India.
Delhi High Court grants Kapoor sisters protection from obscene content, questions limits of personality rights
Bollywood actors Khushi and Janhvi Kapoor have secured legal protection from the Delhi High Court against obscene and defamatory online content, though the judiciary has raised questions about the appropriate boundaries of personality rights enforcement in the digital age.
On Wednesday, August 12, Justice Jyoti Singh directed social media platforms to remove allegedly obscene and defamatory content concerning Khushi Kapoor and material involving the unauthorized commercial exploitation of her identity. The court issued a John Doe order—a legal remedy in India also known as an Ashok Kumar order that enables plaintiffs to take action against unknown or unidentified defendants when infringers cannot be identified at the time of filing.
This order follows a similar ruling secured by her sister Janhvi Kapoor a day earlier. In Janhvi's case heard on August 11, the court directed the removal of obscene material after her counsel submitted over 4,000 URLs for takedown. However, the court declined to impose a blanket restriction on fan pages or fan clubs using her name, prompting judicial scrutiny of how broadly such protections should extend.
Judicial caution on personality rights scope
Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani, presiding over the hearings, expressed concern about the expanding reach of personality rights claims.
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 fan clubs?
The judge emphasized that not all criticism or discussion involving public figures could be curtailed, noting that restrictions must distinguish between legitimate commentary and content crossing into obscenity or commercial exploitation.
A part of it may be satire or critical of your work. Are fan pages your monopoly? Are you sure? If they are monetising or there is commercial exploitation, then yes. But not all fan pages are,he observed.
Justice Bhambhani also noted that online abuse has become unavoidable for anyone in the public domain, including members of the judiciary.
Who is immune from all this today? Anybody who is in the public domain is being abused left, right and centre,he remarked, adding that some individuals might attempt to hide wrongdoings behind personality rights claims.
Growing trend of celebrity protection cases
The Kapoor sisters' cases form part of a significant surge in personality rights litigation at the Delhi High Court during 2025-2026. The court has granted similar protection to numerous public figures including:
- Cricketers Abhishek Sharma and Yuvraj Singh
- Actors Allu Arjun, Mohanlal, Kajol, and R. Madhavan
- Entrepreneur Aman Gupta
- Spiritual preacher Aniruddhacharya
India does not have dedicated statutory law for personality or publicity rights. Instead, courts have derived protection from Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the right to life and personal liberty, and applied remedies through common law, trademark law, and copyright law. Indian courts define publicity rights as encompassing two facets: protection from commercial exploitation without permission, treated as a tort of passing off focused on economic harm, and the right to privacy addressing non-economic dignitary harm.
The legal framework for such protections has expanded significantly since the Delhi High Court's landmark 2023 decision in Anil Kapoor v. Simply Life India, which broadened personality rights beyond name and likeness to include voice, gestures, and catchphrases. In that case, Anil Kapoor secured protection for his iconic phrase jhakaas.
However, the judiciary has recently begun questioning both the scope and concentration of these cases in Delhi. During a February 2026 hearing, Justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked
Why Delhi?noting that litigants increasingly shift such disputes to the Delhi High Court despite lacking clear jurisdictional connections. A judge recently observed that personality rights claims are
acquiring amoebic proportions,expressing concern that the doctrine may be expanding beyond its intended limits.
About the Kapoor sisters
Khushi and Janhvi Kapoor are the daughters of film producer Boney Kapoor and the late actor Sridevi. Khushi made her acting debut in 2023 with Netflix's The Archies, where she played Betty Cooper, followed by two romantic comedies in 2025, Loveyapa opposite Junaid Khan and Nadaaniyan, both of which received poor reviews. Janhvi has appeared in films including Dhadak, Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, Mili, and Homebound.
