In a petition for the quashing of the criminal case filed against Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, and Supriya Shrinate in a copyright infringement case for the alleged unauthorised use of music from the movie KGF Chapter 2 during the Bharat Jodo Yatra campaign [Jairam Ramesh v State of Karnataka], the Karnataka High Court reserved its verdict on Friday.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna heard the arguments of the parties and reserved his orders, stating that Gandhi and others would continue to have interim protection until the case was resolved.
For the Congress leaders, Senior Advocate Vikram Huilgol argued that the accused must have knowingly violated a copyright for an offense to be established under Section 63 of the Copyright Act.
However, there was no intention to violate the copyright in this instance.
In addition, it was argued that the copyrighted content had not been monetized in any way by the petitioners.
According to the submission, “There is no allegation that I have monetized. Keeping in mind the object of the Copyright Act, I have no monetary gain.”
On the other hand, complainant MRT Music’s attorney, Senior Advocate S Sriranga, stated that the petitioners gained popularity throughout the entire process even though it was presumed that no monetary gain was made.
Is gain only financial? They have gained popularity throughout the entire process,” the senior counsel argued.
He also emphasized that the petitioners altered the source code, which is the basis for the claim of infringement.
The complaint filed by MRT Music alleges that the video for the Bharat Jodo Yatra was made with the intention of widespread distribution on social media platforms and made use of well-known sound recordings owned by the complainant.
They say that the video showed clearly that the accused had used the recordings fraudulently with the intention of making illegal gains.
A first information report (FIR) was registered on the basis of MRT’s earlier criminal complaint and copyright infringement suit.
An Additional City Civil & Sessions Judge in Bengaluru ordered a local commissioner to visit the Congress party website, conduct an electronic audit, and preserve the infringing materials on their social media platforms on November 7, while hearing the copyright lawsuit. Additionally, the judge had issued an injunction in MRT’s favor.
On November 8, the Congress immediately filed a challenge to this order in the High Court.
The order was overturned by the High Court, which also ordered the Congress party to remove the offensive material from its Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram accounts.
Name -Sandeep K. Pareek, BALLB(2nd sem.), RNB Global University
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