Famous musician Ilaiyaraaja has received a big blow from the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has rejected his petition, in which he had sought to transfer his copyright-related legal battle from the Bombay High Court to the Madras High Court.

The bench of Justice B. R. Gavai, Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice N. V. Anjaria did not agree with the arguments of senior advocate Gopal Shankarnarayanan, who appeared on behalf of Ilaiyaraaja. The advocate had argued that this matter is related to the case pending in the Madras High Court, so it should be transferred there. However, Sony Music Entertainment told the court that the company had filed this case in the Bombay High Court in 2022 and at present there is no case pending in the Madras High Court related to it. On this, the Supreme Court bench dismissed the petition and said that the matter will be heard in the Bombay High Court itself.

It is worth noting that Sony Music Entertainment India had filed a case against Ilaiyaraaja Music and Management Private Limited (IMMPL) in the Bombay High Court, in which the company had sought an interim stay on the use of 536 musical compositions. Sony claims that it has acquired these rights through Oriental Records and Echo Recordings.

At the same time, Ilaiyaraaja's company IMMPL says that out of these 536 compositions, 310 are already under judicial consideration under another case going on in the Madras High Court. The case started in 2014, when Ilaiyaraaja filed a case against Echo Recordings, in which he sought recognition of moral and economic rights over his musical compositions. In a landmark judgement in 2019, the court had acknowledged the moral and privileged rights of Ilaiyaraaja.

With this recent judgement, it is clear that the case filed in Bombay High Court will be heard there and the case pending in Madras High Court will have no effect on the transfer.