The Delhi High Court recently refused to pass an interim order restraining the use of the song Jalsa sung by Satinder Pal Singh Sartaaj in the upcoming Akshay Kumar starrer Mission Raniganj after the singer agreed to deposit Rs 25 lakh with the Court.
The High Court passed the order on September 25 while hearing a lawsuit filed by Saga Music Private Limited (plaintiff 1), which had sought a permanent injunction against Sartaaj and others from using the song in the movie.
As per Saga, Sony Music Entertainment India Pvt. Ltd had released Jalsa in 2014 on a commercial scale and on July 17, 2018, Sony Music had executed an assignment agreement in favour of one Hardip Sidhu (Defendant 2), based in the United Kingdom. Sidhu had acquired the rights to the song and this was “an exclusive and absolute assignment in terms of Clause 4 of the Assignment Agreement”.
Meanwhile, Sartaaj held a concert at the Sydney Opera House in August 2022 where he sang 19 songs, out of which, he assigned the rights to 12 songs, including Jalsa, to Saga Music.
The court noted Sartaaj had entered into a “Copyright Assignment Agreement” described as an agreement for perpetuity and applicable to the entire universe. This agreement dated August 16, 2022, gave rights to Unisys Infosolutions Pvt Ltd or plaintiff 2 even in the literary works, and declared Unisys as the author of those songs.
“Under this agreement, Plaintiff No 2 (Unisys) was to pay a sum of Rs 50 lakh to Defendant No 1 (Sartaaj). Admittedly, a sum of Rs. 25 lakh is stated to have been paid by Plaintiff No 2 (Unisys) to Defendant No 1 (Sartaaj) and the remaining Rs 25 lakh is yet to be paid,” the HC noted.
Saga Music claimed it is a subsidiary of Unisys, and has been appointed as an “exclusive licensee of some of the copyrighted works” owned by that company. Saga Music stated it is the exclusive licensee of Jalsa and its main grievance was that it recently learnt of the feature film produced and to be released by Pooja Entertainment Limited (defendant 3) titled Mission Raniganj in which the rights in the sound recordings are stated to be owned by Jjust Music Label Pvt Ltd (Defendant 4).
Saga claimed that in Mission Raniganj, Jalsa has been incorporated with the “same lyrics and the voice” of Sartaaj, and the movie is slated for release on October 6.
A single judge bench of Justice Prathiba Singh noted that the lawsuit highlighted the “precarious position” in which artists, film producers, companies that manage rights in music, and others are placed due to the execution of multiple agreements in respect of the same work.
After hearing all the parties, the HC observed it was “clear” that Sartaaj had entered into multiple agreements in respect of the same song with different parties.
The HC noted Sartaaj had entered into an “Exclusive Album Assignment Agreement” in 2014 with Sony Music and hence “prima facie, no rights could have been assigned in the underlying works” to Unisys through the Copyright Assignment Agreement of August 16, 2022.
The HC said the Copyright Assignment Agreement would have “no legs to stand on” as on August 16, 2022, Sartaaj did not own rights in the underlying works.
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“Prima facie, therefore it appears that the rights that were transferred Copyright Assignment Agreement between Defendant No 1 and Plaintiff dated 16th August 2022 in respect of the song Jalsa are unclear and ambiguous, in this background,” Justice Singh said.
However, the High Court said it was inclined to protect the interest of Saga Music by balancing the interests of the defendants as well.
After Sartaaj volunteered to deposit the amount with the Court within one week, the bench rejected the prayer for an interim injunction “at this stage”. “The said deposits shall be without prejudice to the rights and contentions of parties appearing before the court,” the high court added.
The matter is next listed on March 20, 2024.
The post Delhi HC refuses to restrain use of Satinder Pal Singh Sartaaj’s song ‘Jalsa’ in ‘Mission Raniganj’ ‘at this stage’ appeared first on The Telegraph News Today.
