The Delhi High Court has restrained veteran composer Ilaiyaraaja from exploiting certain sound recordings and musical works claimed by music label Saregama in a copyright infringement suit.

Justice Tushar Rao Gedela passed the order on February 13 while hearing a commercial suit filed by the company.

The court said irreparable loss and injury may be caused to Saregama if Ilaiyaraaja was not restrained from using the sound recordings in question.

As per legal portal Bar and Bench, the order states, “Defendant [Ilaiyaraaja], its partners or proprietors, licensees, assigns, officers, servants, agents, representatives, contractors, sister concerns and any other person working for and on behalf of the defendant are restrained from exploiting/ using/ issuing licenses for the plaintiff’s Copyrighted Works i.e. the sound recordings and literary and musical works forming a part of the said Cinematograph Films enlisted in Annexure A appended to this Order or making any claim of ownership to the third parties or issuing any license for exploitation in relation to the plaintiff’s Copyrighted Works."

Saregama submitted that between 1976 and 2001, it entered into assignment agreements with producers of several cinematograph films, under which the copyright in the sound recordings and the underlying musical and literary works vested exclusively in the company on a worldwide and perpetual basis.

The company alleged that Ilaiyaraaja uploaded and authorised the use of several of these works on digital streaming platforms, including Amazon Music, iTunes and JioSaavn in February, and asserted ownership over them.

According to the plea, under the Copyright Act, 1957 and Supreme Court rulings, a film producer is the first owner of copyright in works commissioned for a cinematograph film, unless there is a contract to the contrary.

Ilaiyaraaja has composed music for over 1,400 films across languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and Marathi, and is a multiple National Film Award winner.