Copyright Law Declared by the Supreme Court of India

Abstract

The law declared by the Supreme Court of India (Supreme Court) is the law of the land by virtue of Article 141 of the Constitution of India. When the Supreme Court decides a lis, it not only decide for the parties to the case but also declares the law on a question that it decides to answer. There are only twenty-four reported decisions delivered by the Supreme Court in the last 72 years on the copyright law. Number of decisions per year is not even one. On an average, the Supreme Court has decided .33 case in a year; or one copyright case in 1104.58 days, or in 3.02 years. These decisions of the Court on copyright law are just double of the number of decisions on the patent law. A review of decisions on copyright law from 28 January 1950 to 28 August 2022, reveals that: (i) only in 20 decisions, the Supreme Court has declared copyright law which include 4 decisions from 20th century and 16 decisions from 21st century; (ii) the validity of The Copyright Act, 1957, was not challenged in any decision; (iii) only one case from the decision of High Court involving the constitutionality of Rule 29 (4) of The Copyright Rules, 2013 where the High Court re-drafted the Rule, reached to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court held the redrafting by the High Court as unwarranted and shown deference to the legislative wisdom; (iv) No Constitution Bench or Single Bench decision is reported; (v) no Chief Justice of India was on the bench in any copyright decisions; (vi) only 4 judges authored their separate but concurring judgments (3 from 20th century and 1 from 21st century) and no dissenting judgment was delivered; (vii) the Court has unanimpously answered the questions of copyright law; and (viii) only some of the questions of copyright law have been answered unambiguously and unequivovally by the Supreme Court but some of the questions have been left open by the Court. This Paper seeks to cull out the principles of copyright law as declared by the Supreme Court in the last 72 years.