BREAKING| KGF Song Copyright Infringement: Karnataka High Court Stays FIR Against Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh & Supriya Shrinate

The Karnataka High Court on Friday granted interim relief to Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh and Supriya Shrinate in the FIR registered by music company MRT Music over the alleged copyright infringement by the use of song from the Kannada movie "KGF Chapter 2" in the promotional video for the "Bharat Jodo Yatra".

The Court stayed the investigation in the FIR till the next date of hearing.

A single bench of Justice Sunil Dutt Yadav passed the order after hearing the arguments of Senior Advocate AS Ponnanna on behalf of the petitioners. The senior counsel informed the bench that the videos featuring the song have been taken down from the official social media handles of the Congress party, following an earlier undertaking given to the Court. MRT Music has also filed a civil suit, in which a trial court earlier directed the blocking of the social media handles of the Congress party and Bharat Jodo Yatra. The order was lifted by the High Court in an appeal filed by the Congress party, on an undertaking given by it to take down the offending videos.

Ponnanna argued that no cognizable offence has been made out in the complaint so as to register the FIR. Rahul Gandhi cannot be made an accused merely because his face is featuring in the video. He also raised the issue of territorial jurisdiction, as the FIR is registered at Yeshwantpur police station, although the Yatra never entered Bangalore.

The FIR invokes offences under sections 120-B, 403, 465 r/w Section 34 of IPC and Section 63 of Copyright Act, Section 66 of IT Act. In this regard, the senior counsel argued that when Copyright Act is invoked, there is no basis to invoke IPC provisions, as the special act will prevail over the general act. He argued that the IPC provisions have been deliberately invoked as the offences under the Copyright Act are non-cognizable.

"It is not that I am in the same business or I am selling this by saying I am owner KGF songs...I am not making any commercial gain out of it", he argued stressing the point that there is no basis to invoke IPC provisions relating to criminal conspiracy, forgery, misappropriation of property etc. There is no basis for criminal proceedings when the civil law remedy has already been invoked, he contended.

When the Court asked if any preliminary enquiry was conducted, the counsel replied "within minutes of lodging complaint, FIR was registered".

Arguments of MRT Music

Senior Advocate Shyamsundar MS, appearing for the complainant, submitted at the outset that there is no urgency to hear the petition and requested for hearing after the winter vacations. He further submitted that the offending videos have not been taken down despite the undertaking given to the Court and therefore, the complainant has filed a contempt petition before the Court.

"In the particular rally they are seen to have used my sound track to glorify for whatsoever reasons...We are the ones who are exclusively entitled to use it..We can sub-commercialise which has not happened in this case", he told the Court.

He pointed out that Section 63 of the Copyright Act makes copyright infringement which is punishable with sentence of imprisonment up to 3 years. As regards the applicability of IPC provisions, he said that whether there is a criminal intent or criminal conspiracy is a matter to be ascertained through investigation and it is too nascent a a stage to conclude otherwise.