Calcutta High Court
Vodafone India Limited & Anr vs Saregama India Limited & Anr on 1 October, 2018
Equivalent citations: AIRONLINE 2018 CAL 1400
Author: Soumen Sen
Bench: Soumen Sen
ORDER SHEET
GA No.1068 of 2018
CS No.23 of 2018
IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction
ORIGINAL SIDE
VODAFONE INDIA LIMITED & ANR.
Versus
SAREGAMA INDIA LIMITED & ANR.
BEFORE:
The Hon'ble JUSTICE SOUMEN SEN
Date: 1st October, 2018.
Appearance:
Mr. Hirak Mitra Sr. Adv.
Mr. Ranjan Bachawat Sr. Adv.
Mr. Debnath Ghosh, Adv.
Ms. Adreeka Pandey, Adv.
Mr. Gautam Banerjee, Adv.
Mr. Protap Chatterjee Sr. Adv.
Mr. Soumabho Ghosh, Adv.
Mr. Arunabha Deb, Adv.
Mr. Tanmoy Chakraborty, Adv.
The Court: The suit shall be re-numbered as a commercial cause.
In this application the petitioner has prayed for an injunction restraining the
respondent no.1 from raising unconditional claim of the petitioners for usage of the VAS
content as provided by the respondent no.1 under the several agreements entered into between the petitioner and the respondent no.1. Mr. Pratap Chatterjee, learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner has submitted that the suit is an interpleader suit in which there are rival claims between the respondent no.1 and the respondent no.2 and in order to determine the respective liabilities which the petitioner 2 is willing to discharge under agreements this suit has been filed in which this application has been taken out for interim reliefs. The petitioners have several grievances with regard to the nature of the agreements forwarded by the respondent no.1 to the plaintiff. The petitioners contend that the nature of the agreement is such which might be prejudicial to the interest of the defendant no.2. The defendant no.2 in a communication dated 29th December, 2017 has raised certain issues with regard to their claim for expiration of the musical rights by the plaintiff under an agreement with the defendant no.1. Mr. Chatterjee is correct in his submission that the plaintiff has to pay for expiration of such rights but there remains a dispute with regard to the nature of the agreement that has been sent to the plaintiff for final execution.
Without entering into the merits of the matter, it is clear that the plaintiff has an obligation to discharge. The defendant no.1 has contended that the agreements under which the plaintiff was allowed to exploit the musical rights have expired and without a fresh agreement the use of the musical songs by the plaintiffs would be unauthorized. It is submitted that the claim of the defendant no.2, if any, would be independent of the obligation that the plaintiffs would be required to discharge to such society and it is no way connected with the rights of the defendant no.1. Before these issues are decided, in order to show bona fide, the plaintiffs shall deposit a sum of Rs.3.50 crores with the Registrar High Court, Original Side within 31st October, 2018 upon intimation to the advocate on record of the defendants. The Registrar, Original Side shall invest the said amount in a suitable fixed deposit account of any nationalized bank yielding highest return and shall keep the said fixed deposit renewed until further orders.
There shall be an unconditional order in terms of prayers (a) and (b) for a period of three weeks. However, in the event the said deposits are made, the order of injunction shall continue till the disposal of the pending applications. 3
GA No.1068 of 2018 shall be heard along with GA No.2165 of 2018, GA No.2187 of 2018 and GA No.2193 of 2018. All the applications shall appear for final hearing on 19th November, 2018.
The above amount shall also stand secured in CS No.155 of 2018. The affidavits should be completed in the meantime. The aforesaid order is passed without prejudice to the rights and contentions of both the parties.
(SOUMEN SEN, J.) sp/