Popular music label Echo Recording Company Private Limited has preferred an appeal before a Division Bench of the Madras High Court challenging a single judge’s 2019 order which held that music composer R. Ilaiyaraaja has a “special moral right” over 4,500 songs composed by him for more than 1,000 movies in his film career spanning over four decades.
Justices R. Subramanian and R. Sakthivel are slated to hear on Monday, March 25, 2024 the original side appeal filed by the recording company against Justice Anita Sumanth’s June 4, 2019 order. The appeal had been restricted to a part of the decree which recognised the composer’s moral right, in line with Section 57 of the Copyright Act, with respect to his compositions.
The decree was passed in a civil suit filed by the music composer in 2014 against a group of music labels including the Malaysia based Agi Music, Echo Recording of Chennai, Unisys Info Solution of Andhra Pradesh and Giri Trading Company of Mumbai. Then, he had sought to restrain the music labels from monetising the songs composed by him without his permission.
