The High Court of Karnataka on Friday sent notice to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and others in a contempt petition moved by a music company for unauthorised use of the sound tracks from the movie KGF chapter-2 for a promotional video of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The petition is moved by MRT Music, the copyright holders of the music.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale has posted the matter to January 12, 2023 after issuing notice to Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, and Supriya Shrinate, chairperson of Social media and digital platforms of INC.
The complainant-petitioner stated that on November 7, 2022 a civil court had passed a temporary injunction order directing Twitter to take down three tweets posted from the party's handle @INCIndia and also to block the social media handles @INCIndia and @BharatJodo. The next day, on the petition moved by the INC, the High Court had set aside this order, subject to the condition that INC would remove the content from its social media platforms -- Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, the petition said.
The petitioner claimed that the social media handles on the mobile applications revealed that the accused persons have further distributed the sound recordings to the public by synchronising the video to the sound recording ‘Rana Dheera’ from KGF Chapter-2.
MRT Music had sought a decree of permanent injunction against the Congress and its party leaders. In the earlier proceeding, the High Court had remitted the matter back to the civil court and said the order passed by it will not come in the way of plaintiff (MRT Music) proceedings with its suit over alleged copyright violation.