The Hon'ble Bombay High Court (‘Court’) recently passed a significant ruling in the case of Karan Johar v. Indian Pride Advisory Pvt. Ltd. The Court restrained the release of the upcoming film 'Shaadi Ke Director Karan Aur Johar' and any related promotional material, finding that the makers of the film infringed personality right of Karan Johar. This pivotal judgment brings to the forefront the critical importance of personality rights and the judiciary's role in protecting individuals against such violations.

Understanding Personality Rights

The way the public views an individual is shaped by their employment, social status, and daily activities, which together create a unique persona. This persona reflects the individual's emotional, dignified, human, and moral values and forms part of their personality rights.

Personality rights are the rights individuals have over their name, image, reputation, likeness, and other clear aspects of their identity. These rights are generally divided into two categories:

1. Right of Publicity: This protects individuals from having their image or likeness used for commercial purposes without their permission or payment.

2. Right to Privacy: This protects individuals from having their personal identity publicly disclosed without their consent.

These rights extend beyond mere existence or freedom of speech. They inherently include the right to live with dignity, which would be meaningless without a reasonable degree of privacy and protection against the misuse of one's name, style, and personality.

Celebrities often face such violations of their personality rights. Consequently, the judiciary has repeatedly acknowledged the rights of celebrities over their image, reputation and/or likeness.

Recognition Personality Rights in India

In India, there is no specific statute or law that explicitly protects personality rights. However, Indian courts have derived protection for these rights from Article 19(1)(a) i.e., freedom of speech and expression and Article 21 i.e., protection of life and personal liberty of the Indian Constitution, as well as from Intellectual Property Rights laws. The concept of personality rights was recognized as early as 1994 in the landmark case of R. Rajagopal v. State of Tamil Nadu, where the Supreme Court acknowledged an individual's right to control the commercial use of their identity.

The Supreme Court, in Shivaji Rao Gaikwad v. Varsha Productions, stressed that while there's no statutory definition of "Personality Right" in India, Indian courts have recognized and interpreted this concept in multiple judgments, as explained in detail below.

Judicial Perspective on Personality Rights

In the case of ICC Development (International) Ltd. v. Arvee Enterprises, the Delhi High Court acknowledged the commercial value of a personality. The Court determined that famous individuals have the right to protect their persona from unauthorized commercial use.

Further recognising the personality rights in the case of Titan industries v. M/S Ramkumar Jewellers, Delhi High Court ruled that the famous personality shall have the right to control when, where and how their identity is used. The Court further recognized that the right to control commercial use of human identity forms an integral part of right to publicity.

In 2022, the Delhi High Court, in the case of Amitabh Bachchan v. Rajat Nagi & Ors., provided relief against the unauthorized commercial use of Amitabh Bachchan's voice and images.

Not long ago, the Hon’ble Delhi High Court, in the case of Anil Kapoor v. Simply Life India and Ors., restrained the third party from utilizing the actor’s name, likeness, image, voice, personality, or any other aspects of his persona.

In the recent case of Jaikishan Kakubhal Saraf Alias Jackie Shroff v. The Peppy Store & Ors., actor Jackie Shroff filed a suit against the Defendants for violating his personality rights and registrations of trademarks such as “BHIDU” and “Bhidu ka khopcha”. The Delhi High Court upheld the Plaintiff's rights and issued an injunction against the Defendants, barring them from using Shroff's name and other identifiers for commercial purposes without his consent.

Karan Johar Case

Recently, the Hon’ble Bombay High Court in the case of Karan Johar v. Indian Pride Advisory Pvt. Ltd. granted Karan Johar relief against violation of his personality rights and seeking to prevent use of his name in the title of the movie.

Indian Pride Advisory Pvt. Ltd. i.e., the makers of the film 'Shadi Ke Director Karan Aur Johar'/'Shadi Ke Director Karan Johar' used Karan Johar’s entire name in the title with the word “Aur” in between. Advocates for Karan Johar prayed for temporary injunction against using Karan Johar’s name in the title of the film or any other material.

The Court held that, considering Karan Johar’s celebrity status, the producers and writers of the film made unauthorized use of his name. The Court recognized Karan Johar’s personality rights thereby acknowledging his status as a celebrity and granted ad-interim relief.

MHCO Comment: The Hon’ble Court, through this judgment, has once again reiterated its stance on the violation of personality rights in India, even though these rights have not been outlined in a single statute. Indian courts have time and again recognized the importance of allowing individuals to their image, identity, and personal information and protected personality rights of celebrities.
 

This update was released on 25 Jun 2024.

The views expressed in this update are personal and should not be construed as any legal advice. Please contact us directly on +91 22 40565252 or legalupdates@mhcolaw.com for any assistance.

Legal Update Team
MANSUKHLAL HIRALAL & COMPANY
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