Ilaiyaraaja's copyright case: Supreme Court rejects the composer's plea to shift copyright case to Madras High Court

In 2022, a popular music label filed a case in the Bombay High Court against Ilaiyaraaja Music. In that case, it was reported that 228 of a popular music label's 536 albums were released to the public, thereby infringing the copyright of those songs. Furthermore, a popular music label alleged that songs composed by Ilaiyaraaja uploaded some copyrighted songs it had acquired from Echo Recordings in 2021 to social media such as YouTube. As a result, a popular music label filed a lawsuit in court seeking damages of Rs. 1.5 crore. They asserted that this was a copyright infringement and that the Ilaiyaraaja side had reused a popular music label's rights.Ilaiyaraaja moves SC to shift case to Madras High CourtA petition was filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of composer Ilayaraja's company, "Ilaiyaraaja Music", seeking the transfer of the case from the Bombay High Court to the Madras High Court. According to Nakkheeran, the petition stated that some patent and copyright cases against Sony Music were already pending in the Madras High Court. Another case of the same nature being tried in Mumbai could lead to legal conflicts and reversals in the future, he said. Ilaiyaraaja's side also emphasized that it is in the interests of justice for the same cases to be heard in the same court.Lawyer cites risk of conflicting rulings in two courtsTo consider this request, the case was taken up for hearing before a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice P.R. Kawai. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan appeared on behalf of Ilayaraja and explained the details of the cases already pending in the Madras High Court, insisting that the case filed by a popular music label should also be transferred to the same court. He expressed the position that, legally, instead of hearing the same matters simultaneously in two different courts, a unified solution can be obtained in one place.SC rejects plea; says Bombay HC will hear the caseHowever, after the judges considered this request, they concluded that the transfer of the case was not necessary, so they reportedly rejected Ilaiyaraaja's petition, stating that the Bombay High Court, where a popular music label had filed the case, was the appropriate court for the matter. Thus, the transfer request filed by Ilayaraja Music Company failed. The verdict confirmed that the case filed by a popular music label Music Company will now be heard in the Bombay High Court.