Ustad Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar vs. Mr. A.R. Rahman & Ors.

Recently, the High Court of Delhi, ruled in favour of Ustad Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar (“Plaintiff”) in a copyright infringement suit filed against Mr. A.R. Rahman & Ors. (“Defendants”), thereby, awarding a cost of Rs. 2 crores to the Plaintiff.

It was the Plaintiff’s case that the Defendants had utilized the original composition of the Plaintiff’s father and uncle, who were popularly known as the “Junior Dagar Brothers”, in their song. The Plaintiff argued that the composition was originally composed by Junior Dagar Brothers sometime in the 1970s, and the copyright in the composition was transferred to the Plaintiff after their death. The Plaintiff claimed that after learning of the unlawful utilization, the Plaintiff wrote a letter to the Defendants regarding the alleged infringement of moral rights of Junior Dagar Brothers and copyright of the Plaintiff over the composition. In the absence of a response from the Defendants, the Plaintiff filed the present suit.

On the other hand, the Defendants argued that the manner of singing, and the composition itself is not original and capable of copyright protection owing to the existence of several renditions of the same composition in the public domain. It was the Defendant’s case that there is no prima facie case of copyright infringement as there is no substantial similarity between the songs after deleting the elements which are in public domain.

The court was of the opinion that the composition of Junior Dagar Brothers is an original work and is therefore entitled to copyright protection. The court opined that it is not the individual note that the composer may claim copyright on, rather, on the original expression. The court observed that while determining copyright infringement, access and substantial similarity, have to be considered. Since the access to the original composition was established by evidence and on a comparison of both the compositions, it was observed that the Defendants’ song was not merely inspired from Junior Dagar Brothers’ original composition but was in fact identical, with mere change in lyrics and other elements, a prima facie case for copyright infringement was made in this case.

[Ustad Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar vs. Mr. A.R. Rahman & Ors. CS(COMM) 773/2023 and I.A.21148/2023]

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