Live broadcasting of Gurbani from the Guru Granth Sahib Ji at the Golden Temple for a genuine religious purpose may not amount to copyright infringement when there is no commercial exploitation, the Delhi high court said on Friday as it refused to immediately restrain a private channel from live telecasting the Gurbani.
“It’s a literary cum musical work. You are reciting the Gurbani by way of musical performance. There is a literary work called Guru Granth Sahib which you sing by way of musical work. Therefore, you are a literary and a musical work which, if used for bona fide religious ceremony, is not an infringement,” a bench of justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani remarked.
“On prima facie appreciation of the matter, this court is not inclined to pass any ad interim order at this stage,” the court said in the order.
The court made this remark while dealing with a copyright infringement suit filed by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee to restrain a private channel Galactic Television and Communications (GTC), from broadcasting/rebroadcasting Gurbani from the Golden Temple.
In the suit, senior advocate Chander M Lall, appearing for the SGPC, argued that the channel was infringing the SGPC’s broadcast reproduction rights under Section 37 of the Copyright Act by retransmitting Gurbani, which is exclusively broadcast on YouTube by it.
Section 37 specifically protects the special rights of broadcasting organisations. He further submitted that as of date, SGPC has not licensed the broadcasting rights to any party whether on charge or otherwise.
GTC represented by senior advocate PS Patwalia submitted that the channel was not charging any money from the public for viewing the telecast.
The court however, issued summons in the suit and fixed September 24 as the next date of hearing.