The circular issued by the SPSB required only a suitability certificate from SPSB and nothing else in case an auditorium wishes to host a live performance, thereby negating IPRS’ mandatory NOC requirement in effect. IPRS, on the other hand, was of the opinion that copyright matters did not fall within the jurisdiction of SPSB and therefore, the latter does not have the authority to issue any circular negating IPRS’ jurisdiction.
This decision of the court (delivered by Justice P.B. Majmudar and Justice Mridula Bhatkar) was to a certain extent hinging on the pleading of the IPRS counsel himself (Sandeep Marne), who had pointed out that the IPRS would find it difficult if not well-nigh impossible to protect rights of its members by monitoring shows organized across the country, which is more than likely to embroil the society into a maze of litigations.
While the judiciary seems to have averted what promised to be a head-on collision between these two bodies for the time being, one can only wonder what other developments are going to come to light in the long drawn out conflict between IPRS and what is soon becoming almost the rest of the world!
