In a major relief to Congress, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday set aside a trial court’s order to Twitter to block INC and Bharat Jodo Yatra handles over the alleged unauthorised use of music from the Kannada film ‘KGF Chapter-2’, calling it “punitive action.”
A division bench of the High Court of Karnataka gave the order in reference to an economic court’s order to Congress party to remove the offending content before noon on Wednesday. The Congress agreed to remove the 45-second clip that used the copyrighted song before noon on Wednesday from all its social media accounts.
“Appellant would provide screenshots of Twitter handle and also such other forums before offending material is removed,” the Karnataka High Court said.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi argued the case for the party challenging the commercial court for Bengaluru Urban District’s Monday order to temporarily block Twitter handles of INC and Bharat Jodo Yatra in a copyright infringement case. The Division bench of Justices G Narendar and Justice PN Desai heard the petition by the Congress in an emergency hearing on Tuesday evening.
Allowing the appeal, the HC said, “Appeal is allowed in part, subject to appellants (INC) removing it from their social media accounts. This order shall not come in the way of the plaintiff making any request to court to protect their copyrights.”
The senior advocate in his arguments pointed out that the Commercial Court had no urgent reason to pass the interim order and unless it is stayed Twitter would take down the party’s accounts. He submitted that the party was ready to take down the 45 seconds of the alleged clip which infringed on MRT’s copyright. To block Twitter accounts for the 45-second clip has ulterior motives, he told the court.
The senior advocate also saw “ulterior motive,” in the action taken in the suit. “There is no commercial purpose in using the audio clip. A disproportionate order could not be passed by blocking the national party accounts and affecting my freedom of expression, even when the Bharat Jodo yatra is ongoing,” he claimed.
The advocate for MRT Studios also made the submissions contending that the blocking order was right. The HC however, noted that the Congress was agreeing that it had breached the copyright and was ready to remove the content from its Twitter handles and not to use it. “It is punitive action,” the HC said.
Referring to lower court’s order of appointment of a commissioner to investigate the issue, the high court termed it as a premature act. “Once the mistake is admitted, where is the question of investigation into it? If you have filed an FIR, where is the question of appointing a technical expert as commissioner? You want the Commissioner to do the police’s job?,” the HC said.
Bengaluru Court Orders Twitter to Block Cong Accounts
A dedicated commercial court for Bengaluru Urban District on Monday directed the social media giant to block the handles of the Indian National Congress (INC) ‘@INCIndia’ and its ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ ‘@BharatJodo’ till the next date of hearing.
The court ruled that prima facie materials established that the plaintiff, MRT music which is the copyright holder of the soundtracks from the film ‘KGF Chapter 2, would suffer losses and will encourage piracy at large.
“Plaintiff has specifically produced CD showing the side by side file i.e., original version of his copyrighted work with that of the illegally synchronized version. These prima facie materials available before this court at this stage establishes that if same is encouraged plaintiff who is in the business of acquiring cinematography films, songs, music albums etc., will be put to irreparable injury and further same leads to encouraging the piracy at large,” the court was quoted as saying according to an official statement by the record label.
The court ordered the removal of three tweets posted by the party, days after a lawsuit was filed by MRT Music for “illegally” using music from ‘KGF-2’ in its ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ promotion videos.
The Bengaluru police registered a case in Yashwanthpur police station on Friday against senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Supriya Shrinate and Jairam Ramesh under the provisions of Copyright Act, the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code. It alleged Jairam Ramesh had on his official Twitter handle posted two videos of the yatra, in which popular songs from KGF-2 film were used without permission.
The party allegedly used the music “portraying it to be owned by the INC” with a logo of “Bharat Jodo Yatra” and shared the same on their official social media handles.
Meanwhile, Congress said it was pursuing all legal remedies at its disposal and stated it was not present during the proceedings and has not received the order.
“We have read on social media about an adverse order from a Bengaluru court against INC & BJY SM handles,” the Congress had said in a tweet on Monday. “We were neither made aware of nor present at court proceedings. No copy of the order has been received. We are pursuing all the legal remedies at our disposal,” the party said.
(With PTI inputs)
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