Overview
- A Division Bench of Justices C. Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla allowed Rahman’s appeal, setting aside an injunction, mandated credit changes, ₹2 lakh costs, and a Rs 2 crore deposit ordered in April.
- In a detailed judgment now released, the court found the Junior Dagar Brothers were shown as performers, not authors, and said presuming performers to be composers would rewrite the Copyright Act.
- With exclusive authorship not established, the bench declined to assess originality or decide whether ‘Veera Raja Veera’ infringes ‘Shiva Stuti’.
- The ruling highlights the challenge of applying modern copyright to traditional classical works and cautions against monopolising shared repertoire used for teaching and performance.
- Ustad Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar had alleged the film song copied ‘Shiva Stuti’, a piece linked to 1970s performances and a CD, and a single judge had earlier deemed the works identical.