New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed legendary music composer Ilaiyaraaja’s plea to transfer a high-profile copyright dispute from the Bombay High Court to the Madras High Court.
A bench headed by Chief Justice B R Gavai, along with Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria, rejected the arguments of senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who represented Ilaiyaraaja. The counsel had requested that the ongoing case be shifted to the Madras High Court, but the bench disagreed, observing that Sony Music had filed the case in Bombay at a time when there was no similar case pending in Madras.
The dispute began in 2022 when Sony Music Entertainment India filed a lawsuit in the Bombay High Court seeking an injunction to restrain Ilaiyaraaja Music N Management Pvt Ltd (IMMPL) from using 536 musical works. Sony claims it acquired the rights to these works through Oriental Records and Echo Recording, with whom Ilaiyaraaja has been in a long-standing legal battle.
IMMPL has argued that 310 of these 536 disputed works are already under judicial consideration in a parallel case before the Madras High Court. That earlier case, filed by Ilaiyaraaja in 2014 against Echo Recording, challenges the company’s claim to his compositions and asserts his moral and economic rights under the Copyright Act.
In 2019, the Madras High Court delivered a landmark ruling in that matter, upholding Ilaiyaraaja’s moral and special rights as a composer.
With over 7,500 songs across 1,500 films, Ilaiyaraaja remains one of India’s most prolific and celebrated music composers, and this legal battle over his creative legacy continues to attract nationwide attention.
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