A few weeks ago we had blogged on the Sholay-Universal dispute over the licensing of ringtones to Vodafone. In its interim judgment the Delhi High Court had vacated the interim injunction against Vodafone and had ordered Universal to deposit the royalties from the Sholay ringtones with the Registry of the High Court. As noted in the interim judgment the assignment deed between Sholay and Universal was capable of being interpreted either way and the Court therefore refrained from making any observations at the interim stage. The matter therefore proceeded to the stage of trial.
However in my opinion there is the very pertinent question of why the case was not remanded to the Copyright Board for adjudication as required by Section 19A of the Copyright Act, 1957? As per Section 19A(2) of the Copyright Act, 1957 all disputes pertaining to assignment deeds are supposed to be decided by the Copyright Board. In pertinent part the provision states that “(2) If any dispute arises with respect to the assignment of any copyright the Copyright Board may, on receipt of a complaint from the aggrieved party and after holding such inquiry as it considers necessary, pass such order as it may deem fit including an order for the recovery of any royalty payable”
Now Section 9 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 states that The Courts shall (subject to the provisions herein contained) have jurisdiction to try all suits of a civil nature excepting suits of which their cognizance is either expressly or impliedly barred. This basically means that if a statute has vested in a particular authority the jurisdiction to hear a particular type of dispute then the civil court is impliedly barred from hearing such an appeal. In the context of this particular dispute these provisions ensure that all disputes pertaining to the assignment of copyrights under the Copyright Act are to be decided by the Copyright Board.
With respect to the Sholay case, both parties have admitted to the existence of the 1978 assignment deed and as pointed out by the Delhi High Court the main dispute pertains to the interpretation of that assignment deed. If the dispute is only with regards to the terms of the assignment deed, the entire dispute should have been remanded to the Copyright Board. What jurisdiction does the Delhi High Court exercise in such a dispute?
