Karnataka High Court quashes order to block Congress Twitter handle

In a major relief to the Congress party, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday quashed the order of a lower city court ordering it to temporarily block the Twitter handle of the party and Bharat Jodo Yatra. A commercial court on Monday ordered a temporary blockade of the Congress party's Twitter handle in a copyright infringement case. While quashing the order, a division bench of Justice G.Narendra and Justice PN Desai made it clear that the Congress party will have to remove tweets of copyright-infringing material from all its social media platforms. The removal of copyright-infringing material is subject to a commercial court order quashing.

Earlier, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Congress, submitted that the 45-second video with the soundtrack of KGF-2 will be removed from the social media platform. He said the order was given to Twitter to temporarily block the Twitter handle of Congress and Bharat Jodo Yatra is not relevant to the company claiming ownership of the soundtrack. The bench also held that there is no need to block the Twitter handle. The court recorded the contention of the Congress party that it would remove the infringing tweets by 2 pm tomorrow.

In fact, M. Naveen Kumar, who manages MRT Music, had filed a complaint against three Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, for allegedly using music from the Kannada film KGF-2. In the complaint, he claimed that copyright laws were violated by using music from KGF-2. The commercial court in its order said that prima facie evidence establishes that the original version of the music has been used with some minor modifications. This will not only cause irreparable damage to the business but will also encourage piracy on a large scale. Apart from issuing the ex-parte injunction, the court had also appointed a commissioner for electronic audit. The Congress party had moved the Karnataka High Court against the lower court's decision.