'More The Merrier?': Delhi High Court Questions Insistence On Retaining Social Media Platforms In Karan Johar's Personality Rights Suit

The Delhi High Court on Thursday questioned the legal basis for retaining social media intermediaries as parties in filmmaker Karan Johar's personality rights suit after they have complied with its takedown directions, asking, “Why have more the merrier attitude?”

Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing submissions from platforms including Meta (Defendant 15), X Corp. (Defendant 16) and Etsy (Defendant 12), which were impleaded as proforma parties in the suit.

Meta informed the Court that it had fully complied with the September 17, 2025 interim order directing removal of infringing content and therefore sought deletion from the array of parties.

Opposing the plea, counsel for Johar argued that since the Court had passed a John Doe order, the suit is not confined to the material currently before it but extends to infringing content that may surface in the future. For this “limited purpose”, he contended, the platforms ought to remain parties to ensure future compliance.

Justice Singh was not persuaded. “Where did you get this law from that proforma parties need not be deleted?” the Court asked, adding that the intermediaries could always be brought back if there was any specific instance of non-compliance.

When the plaintiff suggested that deletion should follow a formal process, the Court remarked in lighter vein, “You now accuse me of violation of Article 14 now? ... Though I am not a writ court, I can be accused of that.”

The court ultimately directed the platforms to file formal applications seeking deletion.

“Just move a simple half page Order 1 Rule 10 CPC application which we will consider and we will start deleting you,” Justice Singh told the counsel for the intermediaries.

The dispute arises from an interim order dated September 17, 2025, passed by Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, which recognised that Johar's status as a celebrity “inherently grants the Plaintiff proprietary rights over his personality and associated attributes”.

The platforms were impleaded as proforma parties for compliance of interim directions and directed to take down specified URLs hosting disparaging and infringing material featuring the plaintiff, as well as the identified social media accounts, and to furnish BSI details, including IP logs of the account holders.

The matter is now listed before the Joint Registrar on March 9, 2026, and will next be taken up by the Court on May 4, 2026.