Highlights
- The Congress party agreed to remove the clip that used the copyrighted song
- Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi argued the case for the Congress party
- "Appeal is allowed in part, subject to appellants (INC) removing it from social media," HC said
The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday set aside an order of a designated economic court, ordering the blocking of Congress and Bharat Jodo Yatra Twitter handles.
The development comes after a suit filed by MRT Studios claimed 45 seconds of its copyrighted music from 'KGF Chapter 2' movie was used in a 'Bharat Jodo' song by the Congress party.
Soon after, the Congress party agreed to remove the clip that used the copyrighted song before noon on Wednesday from all its social media accounts.
Earlier, the high court asked the party to provide screenshots of the Twitter handle and the other social media accounts before the contentious material was removed.
"We are of the opinion that prayer deserves to be allowed to set aside impugned order, subject to appellant taking down offending material," the high court said.
The Division bench of Justices G Narendar and Justice PN Desai heard the petition by the Congress in an emergency hearing on Tuesday evening.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi argued the case for the party challenging the lower court's Monday order.
Allowing the appeal, the HC said, "Appeal is allowed in part, subject to appellants (INC) removing it from their social media accounts. This order shall not come in the way of the plaintiff making any request to the court to protect their copyrights."
Before that, the senior advocate in his arguments pointed out that the Commercial Court had no urgent reason to pass the interim order and unless it stayed Twitter would take down the party's accounts.
He submitted that the party was ready to take down the 45 seconds of the alleged clip which infringed on MRT's copyright.
To block Twitter accounts for the 45-second clip has ulterior motives, he told the court.
The alleged infringed music clip was on the Twitter handle from October itself but the copyright owner filed the petition on November 2 which was heard on November 5 and the lower court gave the order on November 7.
An ex-parte injunction was passed without issuing notice or recording reasons, he told the division bench.
The senior advocate also saw "ulterior motive," in the action taken in the suit.
"There is no commercial purpose in using the audio clip. A disproportionate order could not be passed by blocking the national party accounts and affecting my freedom of expression, even when the Bharat Jodo yatra is ongoing," he claimed.
The advocate for MRT Studios also made the submissions contending that the blocking order was right.
The HC however, noted that Congress was agreeing that it had breached the copyright and was ready to remove the content from its Twitter handles and not to use it.
"It is punitive action," the HC said.
The court said that appointment of a Commissioner to investigate the issue by the lower court was a premature act.
"Once the mistake is admitted, where is the question of investigation into it? If you have filed an FIR, where is the question of appointing a technical expert as commissioner? You want the Commissioner to do the police's job?," the HC said.
(With inputs from PTI)
