Supreme Court stays HC judgment mandating copyright licence for music played through cable TV in hotel rooms

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a Calcutta High Court judgment in which it was held that hotels must obtain a copyright licence before cable television facilities provided in hotel rooms can be permitted to play copyrighted music or literary works.

Justices KV Viswanathan and Arun Palli passed the interim order on an appeal filed by a Darjeeling-based hotel challenging the High Court's verdict.

The top court issued notice in the matter and sought the response of the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS).

By an August 4 ruling, the Calcutta High Court had ruled that hotels providing cable TV facilities in their rooms cannot avoid paying royalties for copyrighted literary and musical works merely because the cable operator has obtained a licence from the copyright holder.

This judgment has now been challenged before the Supreme Court by Hotel Appolo and Tours Private Limited, which runs a hotel in Darjeeling.

Its plea, filed through advocate Yashwant Singh, said that the hotel plays no music, and operates no facility where music could be played like a discotheque or a banquet hall. It has subscribed to cable television connections from a licensed cable operator and has placed a television set in each of its guest rooms, as many hotels in India do.

While so, a copyright society named the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS) sued it for copyright infringement in 2023. IPRS claimed that copyrighted literary and musical works belonging to its members were being communicated to guests through television sets installed in hotel rooms without a licence or payment of royalty.

IPRS first approached the District Judge at Darjeeling in 2023 seeking to restrain the hotel from using its copyrighted works in such a manner without a licence. After the district court refused to grant it interim relief in September 2024, IPRS moved the High Court in appeal.

The hotel opposed the plea, countering that it has already paid subscription charges to cable operators who held the necessary broadcast rights. Therefore, it contended that it could not be required to pay IPRS separately or compelled to secure a second copyright licence.

On August 4, the Calcutta High Court ruled in IPRS' favour, holding that the act of playing music through cable TVs in hotel guest rooms would also amount to its commercial exploitation in respect of which royalties must be paid to the copyright holder.

The hotel has now approached the Supreme Court challenging this view.

"If the Impugned Order (High Court order) is allowed to prevail, every hotel, guest house, lodge and hospital room in the country in which a subscribed cable connection feeds a television set would be unfairly prejudiced with their fundamental right(s) under Article 19(1)(g) being unreasonably restricted, even with their cable operator holding a valid license," the hotel's plea states.

Among other grounds, the plea also says that the High Court exceeded its appellate jurisdiction when it gave a final pronouncement of contested rights, instead of confining to whether the district court's 2024 decision to deny interim relief was valid.

"The question of (copyright) infringement, which the suit exists to try upon evidence, has been answered at the stage of injunction and in the absence of any evidence at all... it is equally settled that no mini trial may be held at the stage of grant of temporary injunction ... if the appellate Court were itself to decide the matters required to be decided by the trial Court there would be no necessity for a hierarchy of Courts at all... this Hon’ble Court has time and again deprecated the practice of granting interim orders which practically give the principal relief sought," the hotel has argued.

The hotel also contended that if the High Court's ruling is not stayed, it would be compelled to either discontinue cable television services in its guest rooms, or pay huge royalties - a demand which it had resisted since 2017.

Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul along with advocates Yashwant Singh, Harshit Anand, Ira Mahajan, Rohan Poddar and Amogh Bansal appeared for the hotel today.