High Court Restrains SAI from Playing Music at Delhi's Horn Ok Please Food Festival

A single bench of Justice Riyaz Chagla has passed an ad-interim order restraining the Sports Authority of India (SAI) from playing songs or music owned by the Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) without obtaining prior licence, which could spell trouble for Delhi's popular food festival 'Horn Ok Please'.

The festival, scheduled to be held on November 16 and 17 at SAI's Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Stadium in New Delhi, has been embroiled in a copyright dispute with the PPL. The high court made the interim order after hearing an application filed by the PPL seeking injunction against SAI.

The PPL had argued that SAI had infringed its copyright by playing its sound recordings without prior licence at an earlier event held on September 28 and 29 this year. In response, the PPL issued "cease and desist notices" to the SAI on September 7 and November 8, calling upon the authority to cease and desist from infringing the copyright.

Justice Chagla noted that the SAI had not responded to the notices and therefore passed the interim order, restraining it from using PPL's music and sound recordings. The court also ordered that pending the final disposal of the suit, SAI, its employees, licensees, third-party event management companies, or any person acting on its behalf are injunctioned from "publicly performing or in any manner communicating the sound recordings of the songs authorized" to PPL.

The high court's decision may impact the Horn Ok Please festival, with no clarity yet on how the SAI will proceed.