The Delhi High Court on Thursday appointed advocate Gautam Bhatia as amicus curiae in a personality rights suit filed by Bollywood actor Janhvi Kapoor..The Court's appointment of Bhatia as amicus comes against the backdrop of its earlier concerns over the scope of personality rights claims.The matter was listed before Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani.During the hearing, counsel appearing for Kapoor submitted that the URLs identified as infringing had been segregated and categorised in accordance with the directions issued by the Court during an earlier hearing.The counsel also sought early consideration of the categories for the purpose of passing an interim order.Taking note of the submissions, the Court ordered, "Considering the issues involved, this court considers it appropriate to appoint advocate Gautam Bhatia as amicus to assist the court.".On August 11, the Court had directed the takedown of online content concerning Kapoor that was ex facie pornographic, obscene, prurient or lascivious and appeared to directly monetise her personality rights.However, the Court had declined to order a blanket takedown of fan pages. It had observed that such a direction could have implications for free speech.It had also questioned the contours of personality rights in the digital age and had asked lawyers to assist it in bringing “some sanity” to the concept..Kapoor's suit seeks removal of more than 5,000 webpages and social media posts allegedly involving pornographic AI-generated content, impersonation, fake booking agencies and chatbots that commercially exploited her personality traits without consent.The matter will be heard next on September 22 for considering Kapoor's plea for interim relief..Advocates Asav Ranjan and Abha Shah appeared for Kapoor.
