Raman Negi sues ex-Local Train bandmates in Delhi High Court over copyright, royalties

Raman Negi, founding member and former frontman of the popular indie band The Local Train, has moved the Delhi High Court alleging unauthorised exploitation of his copyrighted works, denial of royalties and unlawful appropriation of trademarks associated with the band.

Negi has filed a commercial suit seeking protection and enforcement of his statutory rights under the Copyright Act, 1957, including his rights as an author, composer and performer, along with protection of associated trademark, goodwill and proprietary rights.

The matter was heard briefly by Justice Tejas Karia today and will now be heard in March 2026.

According to the suit, Negi conceived, authored and composed several original songs even prior to the formation of The Local Train and continued to be the principal creative force while he was with them. He claims to be the sole author of the lyrics of fifteen songs released under the albums Aalas Ka Pedh (2015) and Vaaqif (2018) and the sole composer of five songs including Choo Lo, Aaoge Tum Kabhi and Kaisey Jiyun.

The suit states that certain other musical compositions were jointly authored by Negi along with one of the defendants or an erstwhile band member. Negi's authorship and creative contributions were consistently acknowledged within the band through documents, communications and public statements.

For clarity, Negi has categorised the works into three groups: independently owned literary works and select musical compositions in which he claims 100% ownership; jointly authored musical compositions where he claims an undivided 50% share; and jointly produced sound recordings and audio-visual works where he asserts not less than a one-fourth share.

Negi has asserted that he never executed any written assignment or waiver of his copyright, performer’s rights or moral rights in favour of the defendants, as required under the Copyright Act. He states that his decision to exit the band was communicated in December 2021, subject to settlement of accounts and completion of exit formalities, which allegedly never took place despite repeated follow-ups.

The suit alleges that despite repeated follow-ups, the defendants failed to reconcile royalties, provide financial disclosures or execute a lawful retirement deed. During this period, they allegedly continued to commercially exploit Negi’s copyrighted works across digital platforms, withheld royalty information and revenues and shifted funds without transparency.

Negi has further alleged that in August 2022, while his exit was still incomplete, one of the defendants filed trademark applications in their exclusive names without his knowledge or consent, allegedly seeking to unlawfully appropriate goodwill generated primarily through his creative contributions.

After rejecting the retirement deed that sought to deprive him of all present and future royalty and proprietary rights, Negi issued a legal notice in December 2024 demanding work-wise and source-wise revenue details. He claims that the defendants refused to acknowledge his rights or provide the requested disclosures.

Following failed negotiations, Negi initiated pre-litigation mediation before the Delhi High Court Mediation and Conciliation Centre in March 2025. The mediation proceedings were eventually closed as “not settled” in September 2025, following which he instituted the present suit.

The suit seeks declarations of ownership across all categories of works, permanent injunctions restraining infringement and unauthorised exploitation, rendition of accounts, payment of royalties and revenues due, reliefs against allegedly illegal trademark registrations, as well as damages, interest and costs.

Negi is represented by Advocates Nishchal Anand, Tanvi Jain, Vaibhav Jairath, Ajay Thakur and Sanchit Suri of Panda Law.

The defendants were represented by Senior Advocate Swathi Sukumar with Advocates Aditya Gupta, Geetanjali Visvanathan, Siddharth Varshney, Shuvam Bhattacharya and Harshitha Rathod from Ira Law.