In India, Registered copyright societies have the right to carry on the business of granting or accepting licenses in respect of any work in which copyright subsists according to section 33 of the Copyrights Act, 1957. However, there are organisations like the Phonographic Performance Limited(‘PPL’) which, although do not have a valid subsisting registration as a copyright society as on date but have been collecting royalties as assignees of various member record labels in India. PPL filed a suit in the Delhi High Court against Azure Hospitality Private Limited (‘Azure’) for infringement of copyright on account of the latter having used sound recordings whose copyright has been assigned to PPL. The Single Bench of the Delhi High Court vide order dated 03rd March 2025 passed a temporary injunction in favour of PPL restraining Azure from using any of PPL’s copyrighted works. An appeal was filed by Azure before the division bench of the same High Court where the bench vide order dated 15th April 2025 recognised that PPL cannot issue licenses for sound recordings in its repertoire unless it is a registered copyright society or a member of one. However, it allowed PPL to collect license fee from users like Azure at the rates prescribed by Recorded Music Performance Limited (‘RMPL’), a registered copyright society for sound recordings as if PPL were a member of RMPL. The court opined that PPL, though not a registered society at present, can still license the subject sound recordings for playing in the public but in accordance with the terms of the copyright society which at present vests with only with RMPL.
This judgement marked a shift from earlier interpretations of Section 33(1) and (3) of the Indian Copyright Act which allowed entities like PPL to operate outside the framework of copyright societies and issue license independently by structuring their contracts as assignments which entitled them to hold rights under section 18(1) of the Act.
There are more developments in this legal battle as PPL filed an appeal in the Supreme Court of India challenging the 15th April 2025 judgement. The Supreme Court, on 21st April 2025, stayed paragraph 27 of the said judgement which ordered Azure to pay PPL in terms of tariffs released by RMPL. It also lifted the temporary injunction granted by the single bench on 03rd March 2025. This means that as on date, PPL’s demanded rights of payment of royalty and restraint on use without such payment are not protected. In fact, Azure is relieved from paying PPL as of now and is also not retrained from using any songs from PPL’s repertoire. This touches upon a point of immense curiosity as for years unregistered copyright societies have been demanding royalties as assignees of copyrights. However, allowing users like Azure to continue usage without paying royalty to owner/assignee of such copyright can also set a dangerous precedent. The case is listed next on 21st July 2025 before the Supreme Court and it will be interesting to see how the Supreme Court will aim to balance all rights involved.
