Supreme Court refuses to interfere with Delhi HC ruling against Ilaiyaraaja over En Iniya Pon Nilave song copyright

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to interfere with a Delhi High Court ruling that music composer Ilaiyaraaja did not hold the copyright over the lyrics and sound recording in the song En Iniya Pon Nilave from the Tamil film Moodu Pani [Ilaiyaraaja Vs Saregama].

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran refused to entertain the appeal filed by Ilaiyaraaja against the High Court verdict of May 26 in favour of music label Saregama.

The dispute began after Vels Film International used a recreated version of En Iniya Pon Nilave from Moodu Pani in its film Aghathiyaa, claiming a licence from Ilaiyaraaja. Saregama objected, saying it owned the rights through an assignment from the original producer.

The Delhi High Court eventually held that Ilaiyaraaja retained rights only in the musical component or tune of the song, not in the lyrics or sound recording. A single-judge's ruling on this was upheld on May 21 by a Division Bench.

Ilaiyaraaja then filed a review petition questioning the correctness of the High Court's May 21 ruling.

This review petition was dismissed by the High Court on May 26.

He then approached the Supreme Court.

The composer was represented by Senior Advocates CA Sundaram and Swathi Sukumar.

SAREGAMA was represented by Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, assisted by Advocate Ankur Sangal and Ankit Arvind from Aerion Legal.