By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Nov 8:
Additional City Civil Judge, Bengaluru Lathakumari M on Monday directed Twitter to take down three tweets posted from Congress party’s main handle @INCIndia and ordered the micro-blogging site “to block” the social media handles @INCIndia and @BharatJodo till next date of hearing.
The judge passed an ex-parte order in response to the suit filed by “MRT Music” alleging the use of sound records of the film “KGF Chapter-2” by Congress, thus infringing its copyrights. The Indian National Congress, Supriya Shrinate, Rahul Gandhi, Twitter Inc and Ashok Kumar are the respondents. The next hearing has been posted on November 21.
A suit has been filed by M Naveen Kumar (40), partner of MRT Music. accusing the Congress of using the music from the Kannada film ‘KGF-2’ during the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.
“The prima facie material available before this court establishes that if the same is encouraged, the plaintiff who is in the business of acquiring at cinematography films, songs, music albums etc., will be put to irreparable injury and it will also lead to encouraging the piracy at large”, the judge noted.
The court restrained the defendants from using the copyrighted work owned by the plaintiff and from distributing pirated copies of the same. It also restrained the respondents from uploading, storing, posting, communicating or digitally transmitting the work held by the plaintiff, till next date.
The court appointed S.N. Venkateshmurthy, District System Administrator of Computer Section, Commercial Court, Bengaluru as Local Commissioner to visit the defendants’ website to carry out electronic audit, preserve the infringed material available in the above social media, prepare inventory and store the same in the court’s system and separate CD.
An FIR No. 362/2022 was registered with Yashwantpur police station under sections 403, 465, and 120B read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and Section 63 of the Copyrights Act, 1957 against the Congress and above mentioned accused, by Kumar on Friday. Then the matter was referred to the 9 th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court.
After the news broke out, Congress in a tweet said, “We have read on social media about an adverse order from a Bengaluru court against INC & BJY Social Media handles. We were neither made aware of nor present at court proceedings. No copy of the order has been received. We are pursuing all the legal remedies at our disposal.”
Bharat Jodo Yatra enters Maharashtra
In the meanwhile the Yatra reached Degloor in Nanded in Maharashtra on Monday evening from Telangana. The entire Degloor town was aglow with flaming torches on the occasion. Over 3000 torches were lit at the giant statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
A host of Maharashtra Congress leaders including MPCC Chief Nana Patole, former CMs-Ashok Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde and Prithviraj Chavan and CLP leader Balasaheb Thorat welcomed him.
Addressing a huge gathering, Gandhi said “come what may, no force on earth could stop the yatra until it reaches Srinagar. He also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his unability to control the rising prices of essential commodities and fuel.
After that Gandhi walked for nine km from the Shivaji Maharaj statue and offered prayers at Gurudwara Yaadgari Baba Zoravar Singh Ji at Vanali.
During his 14 day leg in Maharashtra, Gandhi will walk 381 km through 15 assembly and 06 parliamentary constituencies. In Nanded, Gandhi will walk 106 km in five days. It will be followed by 91 km in Hingoli district, 54 km in Washim district, 59 km in Akola district, and 71 km in Buldhana before entering Madhya Pradesh. NCP Maharashtra President Jayant Patil, NCP MP Supriya Sule and NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad will walk with Gandhi on November 10. Gandhi will address public rallies in Nanded and Shegaon on November 10 and November 18 respectively.
The 150-day marathon walk which began on September 07, from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu will cover 3570 km and will conclude in Kashmir to unite the country against “divisive politics”.
