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Copyright Law Declared by the Supreme Court of India

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Title Copyright Law Declared by the Supreme Court of India
 
Creator Raza, Aqa
Alam, Ghayur
Talib, Mohammad Athar
 
Subject Copyright Law
Supreme Court of India
Law Declared
The Constitution of India
Article 141
The Copyright Act, 1911
The Copyright Act, 1957
The Copyright Rules, 1958
The Copyright Rules, 2013
Principles
Bench
Infringement
Presumption of Constitutionality
Amendment
Copyright Board
Law-making
Craftsmanship
 
Description 151-170
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
Supreme Court on the 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 theHigh 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 re-drafting 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 decision; (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.
 
Date 2023-05-15T06:16:43Z
2023-05-15T06:16:43Z
2023-05
 
Type Article
 
Identifier 0975-1076 (Online); 0971-7544 (Print)
http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/61909
https://doi.org/10.56042/jipr.v28i2.556
 
Language en
 
Publisher NIScPR-CSIR,India
 
Source JIPR Vol.28(2) [March 2023]