By declaring the blocking of the @INCIndia and @BharatJodo Twitter handles “punitive action,” a division bench of the High Court of Karnataka has overturned the lower court’s order in a copyright infringement case.
The party was required by the high court to submit screenshots of the Twitter handle and the other social media accounts before the controversial content was deleted. The High Court issued the following ruling: “We are of the opinion that prayer deserves to be allowed to set aside impugned order, subject to appellant taking down offending material,” as reported by the News Minute.
The order is subject to the Congress party removing the offending content before noon on Wednesday, November 9. Before Wednesday noon, Congress agreed to delete the 45-second clip that featured the song that was protected by copyright from all of its social media sites.
On November 7, the lower court had issued the order in a case brought by MRT Studios, who claimed that 45 seconds of music from KGF Chapter 2 that was protected by copyright had been used by the Congress party in a song called “Bharat Jodo.”
The plea filed by the Congress was considered in an urgent hearing on Tuesday night, November 8, by the division bench of Justices G Narendar and PN Desai. Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi presented the case for the party contesting the lower court’s Monday order. 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.”
Prior to that, the senior lawyer in his arguments emphasized that the Commercial Court had no urgent need to give the interim order and that Twitter would delete the party’s accounts if it wasn’t stayed. He said that the party was prepared to remove the 45 seconds of the disputed clip that violated MRT’s copyright. To block Twitter accounts for the 45-second clip has ulterior motives, he told the court. “Blocking Twitter handles will not help the respondents unless they have any ulterior motive,” he told the court. as reported by News Minute.
“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,” the advocate further claimed.
The MRT Studios’ counsel also made submissions arguing that the blocking order was appropriate. The High Court did point out that Congress was prepared to take the video down from its Twitter handles and stop using it, admitting that it had violated the copyright. Thus, the High Court declared that directions of the lower court were punitive.
Furthermore, the lower court’s appointment of a Commissioner to look into the matter, according to the court, was a hasty action. “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 High Court said.
Brief about the case: The alleged infringing music clip was posted on the account’s Twitter page as early as October, but the copyright owner didn’t report the incident until November 2. It was then heard on November 5 and the lower court issued its ruling on November 7. He informed the division bench that an ex-parte injunction was issued without giving notice or providing a justification.
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