In a notable ruling, Justice Sharmila U Deshmukh of the Bombay High Court Issued an interim injunction against singer-composer Alok Kumar, preventing him from releasing, performing, or profiting from ten songs Court issued an interim injunction against singer-composer Alok Kumar, that Rao & Sapru Films Pvt. Ltd. claims were created under contractual agreements with the company. The court also directed that Kumar withdraw all these songs from online platforms and surrender all master recordings and related content to the production house.

Facts:

According to the company, Kumar was engaged through three separate agreements in December 2023 to compose, write, and sing these ten tracks, for which he was duly compensated. The firm invested heavily in post-production but accused Kumar of later trying to claim sole ownership. Kumar allegedly uploaded the tracks on streaming services on August 8, 2025, labeling himself as the exclusive creator without authorization.

Kumar contested the claims, arguing he had not been allowed to read the contracts thoroughly before signing and that the actual payment terms were different, asserting the agreements were obtained fraudulently. He maintained that he released the songs due to the company's delay in launching them.

Court’s observations:

The court rejected these arguments at this preliminary stage, noting that Kumar had signed every page of the contracts and had not quickly challenged them on the basis of misrepresentation. The judge also said it was unlikely that an educated person like Kumar would sign several legal documents without understanding them.

The court further referred to a July 18, 2025 email in which Kumar asked for a no-objection certificate and claimed full ownership rights, showing that he knew the rights had already been assigned to the production company.

Referring to the provisions of the Copyright Act, the court emphasized that the assignment clauses in the contract were clear and wide in scope. The bench specifically stated that Rao & Sapru Films would keep the rights to the songs even if the songs were never released, so Section 19(4) did not apply. The court also held that Kumar had no legal right to release the songs on his own, even if he felt the company still owed him some payments.

The judgment included, “Prima facie, the copyright in the suit songs is assigned in favor of the Plaintiff (Rao & Sapru Films) and still subsists in favor of Plaintiff. It is not open for the Defendant (Alok Kumar) upon having executed a valid and legal contract to proceed by treating the agreements as rescinded unilaterally and release the suit songs on the social media platforms.”

Noting that the unauthorized sharing of unfinished songs risked harming Rao & Sapru Films’ interests, the court granted interim protection. Kumar is thus barred from publishing, performing, distributing, or monetizing these ten songs or any related works created under the agreements.

He must also take down all existing uploads from platforms like YouTube and Spotify and deliver all master tracks, raw audio files, lyrics, and related materials to the production house.

Case Title: Rao and Sapru Films Pvt. Ltd. v. Alok Kumar, IA-6542-2025 in Commercial IP Suit No. 618/2025

Advocate For Plaintiff: Adv. Priyank Kapadia, Adv.Nitin Wadkar, Adv.Suresh Poojary instructed by Legal House

Advocate For Defendant: Adv. Faridul Haq Khan instructed by Adv. Saeed S Shaikh