CS(OS) No.666/2006&CS(OS)No.1996/2009

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

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Date of decision: 4^th January, 2021

+

CS(OS) 666/2006, IAs No.4558/2006 (u/S 10 CPC), 19921/2011

(u/O VI R-17 CPC), 9128/2012 (u/S 151 CPC) and 5953/2017

(u/O XI R12 CPC).

THE INDIAN PERFORMING RIGHT SOCIETY LTD. ..... Plaintiff

Through: Mr. Dayan Krishnan, Sr. Adv. with

Mr.

Himanshu

Bagai,

Ms.Anu

Bagai, Mr. Akaashi Lodha, Mr.

Sanjeev, Advocates.

Versus

ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK (INDIA) LTD.

..... Defendant

Through: Mr. Sandeep Sethi, Sr. Adv. with

Mr. Ashish Verma, Ms. Prachi Johri,

Mr. Aditya Gupta, Mr.Shagun Trisal,

Advocates.

AND

CS(OS) 1996/2009

PHONOGRAPHIC PERFORMANCE LTD & ANR ..... Plaintiffs

Through: Mr. Neeraj K. Gupta, Adv. for P1

Mr. Dayan Krishnan, Sr. Adv. with

Mr. Himanshu Bagai, Ms. Anu

Bagai, Mr. Akaashi Lodha, Mr.

Sanjeev, Advocates for Plaintiff

No.2

Versus

CRI EVENTS PRIVATE LIMITED & ORS

..... Defendants

Through:

CORAM:

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJIV SAHAI ENDLAW

2021:DHC:4

CS(OS) No.666/2006&CS(OS)No.1996/2009

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1. CS(OS) No.666/2006 was filed, on or about 22^nd April, 2006, by the

plaintiff The Indian Performing Right Society Limited (IPRS), pleading

that, (i) the plaintiff is a company limited by guarantee and registered under

the Companies Act, 1956 and also registered as a Copyright Society under

Section 33 of the Copyright Act, 1957; (ii) the plaintiff was established to

monitor, protect and enforce the rights, interests and privileges of its

members, comprising of authors, composers and publishers of literary

and/or musical works, who are owners of copyright in their literary and

musical works; (iii) the plaintiff is the sole representative body of

composers, authors and publishers of literary and musical works in India;

(iv) after the amendment of the year 1994 of the Copyright Act, the

plaintiff was re-registered as a Society under Section 33(3) of the Act,

authorizing the plaintiff IPRS to carry on copyright business in literary and

musical works; (v) the members of the plaintiff comprise of authors,

composers and publishers of Indian literary and musical works, and have

executed deeds of assignment, assigning their public performing rights in

respect of the literary and/or musical works in favour of the plaintiff; (vi)

the plaintiff is therefore the exclusive owner of the public performing rights

in respect of these literary and musical works; (vii) the plaintiff is therefore

exclusively authorized to license the public performing rights that exist

with respect to literary and musical work created by its members; (viii) the

primary task of the plaintiff is to collect royalties from users of music and

thereafter disburse the same to the owners of the copyright in the music,

whose interest it represents; (ix) the performing rights include right of

performing the work in public and the right to communicate the work to the

public by making it available for being seen or heard or otherwise enjoyed

2021:DHC:4

CS(OS) No.666/2006&CS(OS)No.1996/2009

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by the public directly or by means of display or diffusion and the right of

authorizing any of the said acts; (x) music is made by a team of persons

comprising of different talents and consequently the copyright in different

components of music may belong to a number of individuals; for example,

there is a lyric writer who writes words of a song, there are music

composers and then there are performers, who actually sing; (xi) under the

Copyright Act, lyric writers and music composers create works which are

recognized as literary and musical works in Sections 2(o) and 2(p) of the

Act; (xii) under Section 2(ff) of the Act, communication to the public

includes within its ambit, communication of any work through satellite or

cable or any other means of simultaneous communi