Delhi HC Bars Ilaiyaraaja from Utilizing Saregama Copyrighted Works

The Delhi Excessive Court docket has ordered legendary composer Ilaiyaraaja to cease utilizing or claiming possession of sure sound recordings and musical works owned by music label Saregama. This choice comes after Saregama accused Ilaiyaraaja of copyright infringement for importing and licensing their tracks on streaming platforms like Amazon Music and JioSaavn.

Saregama holds unique international rights to those sound recordings and underlying musical and literary works by means of task agreements made with movie producers between 1976 and 2001. The court docket agreed that letting Ilaiyaraaja use these songs might trigger “irreparable loss” to Saregama. This is not the primary copyright conflict between the composer and the music label, with Ilaiyaraaja struggling a setback in a earlier case involving the music “En Iniya Pon Nilave”. 

The court docket cited the Copyright Act of 1957, stating {that a} movie producer is the primary proprietor of copyright in works commissioned for a cinematograph movie except acknowledged in any other case in a contract. Saregama’s rights had been primarily based on task agreements with these producers. Ilaiyaraaja uploaded and licensed the usage of a number of of those works on digital streaming platforms, resulting in authorized proceedings in February. 

Ilaiyaraaja is one in every of India’s most prolific music composers, having labored on over 1,400 movies in varied languages, together with Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, and Marathi. He has received a number of Nationwide Movie Awards for Greatest Music Course for movies comparable to Sagara Sangamam (1984), Sindhu Bhairavi (1985), and Rudraveena (1988). The court docket has directed Ilaiyaraaja to file a written assertion inside 30 days, and the following listening to is scheduled for April 2, 2026.