Justice C.V. Karthikeyan, Madras High Court
Madras High Court Directs Party To Produce Log Of All Music Pertaining To South Indian Music Companies Association In Contempt Case
|The Madras High Court also directed to calculate the royalty payable at the needle per hour rate as stipulated in the individual agreements with the members of the Association and furnish such calculation to the Court.
The Madras High Court has directed one party to produce the log of all music pertaining to the South Indian Music Companies Association in a contempt case.
The Court was hearing Contempt Petitions filed by the said music association as well as its Secretary under Section 11 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 seeking to punish the aforesaid party for alleged disobedience of a Judgment.
A Single Bench of Justice C.V. Karthikeyan ordered, “… the respondents in each of the three Contempt Petitions are directed to produce before this Court the log of all music pertaining to the petitioner Association / members of the petitioner Association played by the Radio Stations run by the respondents for the period August 2010 to December 2020.”
The Bench also directed to calculate the royalty payable at the needle per hour rate as stipulated in the individual agreements with the members of the Petitioner Association and furnish such calculation to the Court.
Advocate M.V. Swaroop appeared for the Petitioners while Senior Advocates G. Masailamani and N.L. Rajah appeared for the Respondents.
Factual Background
In all the Contempt Petitions, similar grounds were taken seeking to punish the Respondents for alleged contempt of Court by disobedience of the directions in a Judgment. As per the Petitioners, the Respondents had entered into license agreements with the members of the Petitioner-Association whereby the Respondents had obtained a non-exclusive license to broadcast the repertoire of sound recordings as set out in the schedules to the said agreements. It was contended that the parties had agreed that royalty should be paid on needle per hour rate, however, the Copy Right Board which was exercising the jurisdiction under the Copy Right Act, 1957 prior to its amendment, had passed an Order holding that the royalties were to be paid on the net advertisement revenue earned by the radio stations.
The Petitioners were not parties to the proceedings but their grievance was that the Copy Right Board made its Order applicable to the members of the Petitioner also. This necessitated the Petitioners to file Appeals before the High Court and the same were allowed. The Respondents challenged this before the Supreme Court which ordered that any payment made by the Appellants /Respondents in the Contempt Petitions shall abide by the final result of the Special Leave Petitions (SLPs). It was, therefore, contended that the Respondents should make payments of royalties to the members of the Petitioner Association on the rates prescribed in the respective individual agreements.
Reasoning
The High Court in view of the facts and circumstances of the case, observed, “The learned Senior Counsel for the respondents stated that if there had been a breach of that particular agreement then, the petitioners' remedy lies elsewhere. But that breach would occur only when the respondents disclose the log details and thereafter take a decision that they would not pay the amount in accordance with the agreement or pay under a different rate or method.”
The Court added that there is denial even to furnish basic fundamental information of the log details to the Petitioners and hence, this is Contempt of Court.
“It does not behove on the part of the respondent to give an interpretation of the Court's Judgment. They are bound by the Judgment of the Court and if they are of the opinion that the Judgment of the Court requires revisitation, then they should approach the Appellate forum and obtain an order of restraint of further proceedings pursuant to the Judgment of the Court”, it said.
The Court noted that the Respondents have approached the Supreme Court but had not obtained any Order of stay which would effectively mean that they are bound by the Judgment of the Court.
“The respondents in each one of the three Contempt Petitions are directed to comply with the aforementioned directions within a period of four weeks from this date”, it directed.
Accordingly, the High Court listed the case on September 26, 2025 to report compliance.
Cause Title- The South Indian Music Companies Association v. Aghit Kukian (Case Number: Cont.P.Nos. 3238, 3239 and 3380 of 2024)