The court held that a contract of personal service is not specifically enforceable, and restrictions on trade after termination violate Section 27 of the Indian Contract Act.

JUDGMENT

Amit Bansal, J.

I.A. 16789/2022 (u/O-XXXIX R-1 & 2 of CPC) and I.A. 19779/2022 (of the defendant no. 6 u/O-XXXIX R-4 of CPC)

1. By way of this judgment, I shall dispose of I.A. 16789/2022 filed on behalf of the plaintiff for grant of interim relief under Order XXXIX Rules 1 and 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) and I.A. 19779/2022 filed on behalf of the defendant no. 6 under Order XXXIX Rule 4 of the CPC for vacation of the ex parte ad interim injunction order passed by this Court on 14th October, 2022.

CASE SET UP IN THE PLAINT

2. Brief facts as set out in the plaint are as follows:

2.1. The Plaintiff is engaged in the business of production, aggregation, distribution and monetization of music and entertainment content.

2.2. The defendant no. 1 company is engaged in the business of production, marketing and monetization of music and entertainment content. The defendants no. 2-4 are entertainment channels on the platform of the defendant no. 5. The defendant no. 5 is YouTube LLC, an online video sharing and social media platform. The defendant no. 6, Mr. Shatrughan Kumar @ Khesari Lal Yadav, is a famous actor/singer/dancer of the Bhojpuri Film Industry.

2.3. After detailed negotiations, the plaintiff company entered into a Production Agreement dated 27th May, 2021 (Original Agreement) with the defendant no.6 (hereinafter referred as `Artist'), effective from 1st June, 2021. The Original Agreement was for a period of 30 months.

2.4. Pursuant to the aforesaid Agreement, 12 songs were delivered by the Artist to the plaintiff company and in respect of which, the plaintiff company paid a sum of Rs.30,00,000/- to the Artist on the basis of Rs.2,50,000/- per song. The balance amount was payable in terms of Annexure B to the Original Agreement and upon raising of invoice by the Artist, which the Artist failed to do.

2.5. The Artist committed breach of the terms of the aforesaid Agreement by releasing songs to the third parties in violation of the exclusivity clause under the said Agreement, which resulted in various notices being issued by the plaintiff company to the Artist, including invoking of the arbitration clause under the said Agreement. The aforesaid notices were duly replied on behalf of the Artist through his counsel.

2.6. The aforementioned differences were resolved between the parties, and an `Addendum to the Original Agreement' was entered into between the parties on 7th February, 2022 (hereinafter referred as `Addendum'). The Addendum was also executed in Hindi and the Artist was duly represented through his counsel in the negotiation of the Addendum.

2.7. In blatant infringement of the copyright vested in the plaintiff company and the exclusivity/`right of first refusal' in favour of the plaintiff company, the Artist created content and allowed third parties, i.e., the defendants no.1 to 4 and the defendants no. 7 to 14 to promote the said content by uploading the same on the defendant no.5's platform.

2.8. Accordingly, a notice was sent on behalf of the plaintiff company to the Artist on 11th August, 2022 in which details of songs that were uploaded by the Artist in breach of the contract were provided. Notices were also sent on behalf of the plaintiff company to the defendants no.1 to 4 not to deal or upload or publish the songs of the Artist as the same were in violation of the contract between the plaintiff company and the Artist. The rights of the plaintiff company were duly acknowledged by some of the music broadcasting companies such as T-Series by way of email dated 26th August, 2022 (page 122 of the plaintiff's documents).

3. Accordingly, the present suit was filed by the plaintiff seeking the following reliefs:

"A. Order and declare that the Plaintiff has all rights, title and interest in the content created/produced by Defendant No. 6 and that all copyright in such content vests solely with the Plaintiff during the term of the Original Agreement.

B. Pass a decree permanently