Personality rights going out of hand, says Delhi High Court while hearing Janhvi Kapoor's plea

New Delhi: Expressing the need to bring in some "sanity" in the concept of personality rights after several actors, cricketers, singers and politicians swarmed to court for protection of their rights, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday said that the issue "is going out of hand."

"I want you all (counsels) to assist me to give sanity to the concept of personality rights,"Justice Anup Jairam Bhambani said, while hearing a similar petition filed by film actress Jahnvi Kapoor, who had sought protection of her personality rights and action against more than 5000 webpages and social media posts related to her.

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However, the court protected Kapoor from obscene and pornographic material circulating online, while at the same time drawing a line around what can and cannot be removed in the name of personality rights. The court also asked Meta Platforms Inc. and others to take down those links that are obscene and pornographic.

While questioning Kapoor on her plea to restrain her fan clubs from posting content relating to her, the judge asked "How do we draw a line? In law we can do only so much and no more. We cannot stop free speech, restrain everything. How can you shut down all fan clubs? You are a public personality. Who is immune these days? Everyone who is in the public domain is being abused left, right, and centre."

The judge also stressed that personality rights should not become a means of restricting legitimate speech, including criticism, admiration or satire. "We are not the conscience keepers of the nation. The solution may be worse than the problem. It was at the very root of free speech."

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Observing that it was not inclined to grant any blanket order in the name of personality rights, the court said that there were more than 5,000 uniform resource locators given by Kapoor, where things like fan pages are also involved.