The Delhi High Court has appointed advocate Gautam Bhatia as amicus curiae in actor Janhvi Kapoor’s persona rights go well with, because it examines wider questions round how far celebrities can search safety of their identify, picture and likeness on-line, notably the place claims overlap with satire, defamation and free speech.
Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani made the appointment on September 3, as reported by LiveLaw. Advocate Rohan Alva has individually been appointed amicus in actor Vivek Oberoi’s persona rights case. An amicus curiae, or “good friend of the courtroom”, is an unbiased particular person appointed to help the courtroom with authorized arguments or experience in a case.
Kapoor had moved the Delhi Excessive Courtroom in search of safety in opposition to the unauthorised use of her persona, together with allegedly pornographic and sexually vulgar materials, impersonation and industrial exploitation of her identify and likeness on-line.
At an earlier listening to, the courtroom had declined to order a blanket takedown of all 6,884 URLs cited in her case, however directed the elimination of 552 URLs containing materials it discovered prima facie grossly sexually vulgar or pornographic. It additionally requested Kapoor to segregate the remaining URLs into three classes: sexually vulgar content material, content material immediately monetising her persona rights, and content material not directly utilizing her identify or likeness to promote merchandise or providers.
Throughout Thursday’s listening to, Kapoor’s counsel advised the courtroom that the URLs had now been categorised and sought early consideration of her plea for interim reduction.