The Bombay High Court bench at Goa, on August 13, 2024, struck down a circular dated January 30, 2024 issued by the Government of Goa wherein the Government had stated that playing of music at weddings would not amount to infringement of the Copyright Act.
The issue arose in Writ Petition filed by Phonographic Performance Limited seeking striking down of the impugned circular as impinging on its right as a copyright owner to initiate proceedings for infringement of its copyright while playing the sound recordings at wedding events.
A bench of Justice M S Karnik and Justice Valmiki Mendes held that the impugned circular went much beyond the scope of Section 52(1)(za) as it added reference words like “wedding” which are not a part of the said section.
The Court held that the act which is supposed to be “non-infringing” has to strictly be within the umbrella of the expression “bona-fide religious ceremony”, used in Section 52(1)(za) and has to be determined on a case by case basis.
The Court stated that what would constitute a bona fide religious ceremony would depend on the facts of each case.
Phonographic Performance Limited was represented by Mr Nitin Sardessai, Senior Advocate along with Mr Ankur Sangal, Mr Pulkit Bandodkar, Ms Sucheta Roy, Mr Ankit Arvind, Mr Raghu Vinayak Sinha, Mr Tarun Rebello and Mr S. Sardessai, Advocates.
Novex Communications was represented by Mr Y. V. Nadkarni, Mr Shailesh Redkar and Ms S. Khadilkar.
Sonotek Cassettes Company was represented by Mr S. S. Kantak, Senior Advocate with Mr Pulkit Bandodkar, Mr Ankur Sangal, Ms Saicha Dessai, Mr Simoes Kher, Advocate.
State of Goa was represented by Mr Deep Shirodkar, Additional Government Advocate.
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