Will remove KGF song from social media platforms, Congress tells HC; civil court order on blocking party Twitter handle set aside

Lawyer for party contended that there was no need for the civil court to order blocking the Twitter handle as what was required was only removal or blocking the copyrighted song

November 09, 2022 12:35 am | Updated 11:05 am IST - Bengaluru

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in Jogipet, Telangana.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in Jogipet, Telangana. | Photo Credit: PTI

The Congress on Tuesday assured the High Court of Karnataka that it will remove by November 9 noon the song of film KGF Chapter-2 from all its social media platforms by admitting that the song was uploaded for its Bharat Jodo campaign without obtaining permission from the copyright holder.

Following this assurance, a Division Bench comprising Justice G. Narendar and Justice P.N. Desai set aside the November 7 interim order passed by the Bengaluru city civil court.

The civil court had directed blocking of party’s two Twitter handles, and had ordered electronic audit of various social media accounts of the party and its leaders, Rahul Gandhi and Supriya Shrinate, to ascertain the extent of illegal use of copyrighted song.

The High Court made it clear that setting aside of the interim order of the civil court will not come in the way of the legal rights of MRT Music, which had filed suit before the civil court for copyright violation against the party and its leaders, to pursue its suit and other legal remedies against the party and others for copyright violation.

Admission of mistake

Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the party, admitted before the Bench that using the 45-second part of song of the film was a mistake, and that somebody had inadvertently uploaded the song.

He said that the party would remove the song from the social media platform without prejudice to its contentions to be urged before the civil court and claimed that song was not used for any commercial benefit.

However, Mr. Singhvi contended that there was no need for the civil court to order blocking the entire Twitter handle as what was required was only removal or blocking the copyrighted song, which was allegedly used in breach of the law.

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