##PAGE1##

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS RESERVED ON : 14 / 07 / 2026 PRONOUNCED ON : 27 / 08 / 2026 Coram:

THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE P.VELMURUGAN and THE HONOURABLE MRS. JUSTICE K.GOVINDARAJAN THILAKAVADI O.S.A.(CAD)No.17 of 2022 &

C.M.P.No.2260 of 2022

1.The Cinema Resource Centre, No.11, Bawa Road, Alwarpet, Chennai – 600 018.

Represented by its Trustee, Ms.Sruti Harihara Subramaniam

2.Ms.Sruti Harihara Subramaniam ... Appellants Vs.

1.Ms.Ganga Rudraiah

2.Mr.Dileepan Lingaiah ... Respondents Prayer: This Original Side Appeal is filed under Order XXXVI Rule 1 of O.S. Rules r/w Section 13 (1A) of Commercial Court Act, to set aside the orders dated 13.07.2021 passed in C.S.No.674 of 2017.

##PAGE2##

For Appellants : Mr.N.L.Rajah Senior Advocate For Mr.E.Jayasankar For Respondents : Mr.R.Sathish Kumar for R1 and R2 *****

JUDGMENT

P.VELMURUGAN, J.

The Original Side Appeal is directed against the judgment and decree dated 13.07.2021 passed by the learned Single Judge in C.S.No.674 of 2017, by which the suit filed by the plaintiffs was decreed.

2. The plaintiffs are the daughter and son of late Mr.Rudraiah.

Initially, the daughter alone was shown as the plaintiff, while the son was arrayed as the third defendant. Subsequently, the son was transposed as the second plaintiff.

##PAGE3##

3. The case of the plaintiffs is as follows:

3.1. According to the plaintiffs, late Mr.Rudraiah was the producer and director of the Tamil feature film Aval Appadithan, which was released in theatres on Deepavali day in the year 1978. The film was critically acclaimed and had also received the State Award for cinematography. During the production of the film, photographs were taken in the course of the making of the film. The plaintiffs state that the photographers who took those production photographs were engaged by late Mr.Rudraiah and acted under his directions and supervision, and that the copyright in those production photographs belonged to late Mr.Rudraiah.

3.2. It is further their case that, while photographs relating to other films produced by late Mr.Rudraiah remained available with the family, the album containing the photographs of Aval Appadithan alone went missing. Despite efforts made to trace the photographs, they could not be found, and they believed that the album had been stolen or otherwise misappropriated.

##PAGE4##

3.3. The plaintiffs state that they later came to know, through a publication and through the defendants’ website, that the defendants were in possession of the photographs and were publicly displaying them as part of their archive. The first plaintiff met the second defendant in December 2014 and requested that the original photo album be returned so that it could be used for a website relating to the work of her father, late Mr.Rudraiah. According to the plaintiffs, the second defendant declined to return the album, though she was willing to give credit for donating the same to the first defendant trust. Aggrieved by the refusal to part with the photographs, the plaintiffs filed the present suit.

3.4. The plaintiffs further state that late Mr.Rudraiah had neither assigned nor relinquished his rights in the photographs and that the defendants were not the lawful owners of the same. According to them, upon the death of late Mr.Rudraiah on 08.11.2014, the rights in the production photographs devolved upon them as his legal heirs. Hence, the plaintiffs instituted the suit seeking for declaration of copyright, permanent injunction, delivery of the original photographs, destruction of all copies and other consequential reliefs.

##PAGE5##

4. The case of the defendants, as set out in the written statement, is as follows:

4.1. The defendants state that the first defendant is a non-profitable charitable trust created for the purpose of restoring and preserving antique materials related to Indian cinema and that the second defendant has been collecting film-related materials since 2004. According to them, the suit photographs came