The musical trinity, Muthuswami Deekshitar, Tyagarajar and Syama Sastri can claim to be above everybody but you (music composer R. Ilaiyaraaja) cannot be heard to say so,” said Justice R. Mahadevan, the senior-most judge of the Madras High Court on Wednesday, April 17, 2024.
Presiding over the second Division Bench along with Justice Mohammed Shaffiq, the senior judge recalled senior counsel Satish Parasaran, representing Mr. Ilaiyaraaja, to have retorted, during the April 10, 2024 hearing, that his client was below only to God and above everyone else.
In response, the music composer’s counsel-on-record A. Saravanan said, the senior counsel had made the statement only in the context of copyright and to assert Mr. Ilaiyaraaja’s right over songs composed by him since Echo Recording Private Limited had questioned this right.
