Ritika
Bangalore. A division bench of the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday said it was a “punishable act”. Congress has agreed to remove the 45-second clip made using copyrighted music from all its social media accounts by Wednesday afternoon. The High Court ordered that the party should provide ‘screenshots’ (images captured through mobile phones) of Twitter handles and all social media accounts before the contentious content is removed.
A court in Bengaluru Urban district had issued its order on Monday on a suit filed by MRT Studios. The suit claimed that its copyrighted 45-second music from the film ‘KGF Chapter 2’ has been used by the Congress party in a song for ‘Bharat Jodo’. A division bench of Justice G Narendra and Justice PN Desai considered the Congress’s plea for an emergency hearing on Tuesday evening.
#UPDATE , Karnataka HC stays the lower court order of blocking Twitter accounts of Congress & Bharat Jodo Yatra with conditions to remove posts. Congress has to provide screenshots of the posts that infringe respondent’s copyright.
— ANI (@ANI) November 8, 2022
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi argued that the matter pertained to the party challenging the trial court’s order. Allowing the appeal, the High Court said, “The appeal is allowed conditional, subject to the removal of the relevant material from his social media account by the petitioner (Congress). This order shall not come in the way of any request by the plaintiff to this Court for the protection of the copyright of the plaintiff.”
Earlier, in his plea, the senior advocate mentioned that the commercial court had no reason to issue this interim order and Twitter will take action against the party’s account if it is not stayed. . He argued that the party was ready to remove the alleged 45-second clip infringing MRT’s copyright.
He told the court that blocking the Twitter account for the 45-second clip had a ulterior motive. Singhvi told the division bench that the clip has been on the Twitter handle since October, but the petition was filed by the copyright holder on November 2, which was heard on November 5 and the trial court passed the order on November 7. The order was passed without issuance of notice and without hearing the reason. The counsel for MRT Studios argued that the order of blocking was correct.
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The High Court noted that Congress has agreed that it has infringed copyright and has agreed to remove the material from its Twitter handle and will not use them.
“It is a punishable act,” the High Court said. The court said that the appointment of a commissioner to probe the issue was a premature step. The High Court said, “If the mistake is admitted, where is the question of conducting an inquiry? If you have lodged an FIR, where does the question arise of appointing a technical expert as the commissioner? Do you want to take up police work from the commissioner?”
