Delhi High Court restrains Punjabi rapper Bohemia from working with any music label without prior approval from Saga

The bench said Saga Music had made out a “prima facie case” for ex-parte ad-interim relief, the balance of convenience is in the plaintiff’s favour and irreparable damage will be caused in case certain directions are not passed in favour of the company.

The interim order was passed in Saga’s application for interim relief filed in its main lawsuit wherein it has sought a permanent injunction to restrain Bohemia, his agents, other music producers, and studios from infringing the copyright which accrues to the benefit of the company.

Saga claimed the company and the singer-songwriter had entered into an exclusive talent engagement agreement in 2019 as per which Bohemia would be exclusively engaged with Saga Music for “45 months” and during this term “sing, perform, act for plaintiff only and not for any third parties throughout the world”.

Appearing for the company, senior advocate Akhil Sibal argued as per the agreement any performance anywhere in the world by Bohemia would be managed by Saga Music and the revenue would be distributed between the parties as agreed. He argued Bohemia had agreed Saga Music “would be the sole and exclusive owner of the intellectual property rights including copyright in the songs and performances which were performed during the term of the agreement”.

The HC took note of the lawsuit which stated that Bohemia “failed to abide by terms and conditions of the agreement and failed to make any performance or deliver any sound recordings or visual recording” to Saga Music despite an advance payment having been made to the former.

“There were various incidents of breach of the express terms of the agreement including not updating the plaintiff regarding his musical tours releasing multiple audio songs on YouTube. Pursuant to discussions an addendum was executed making the deliverables even more specific…However, the breach of obligations continued and the defendant continued to release songs by collaborating with other labels in particular Defendants 4-8 (third parties) without taking written approval from the plaintiff. The plaintiff (Saga) therefore lost the ability to monetise the performances despite categorical clauses in their favour,” Sibal said.

Sibal said Bohemia with an “implied reference” to Saga Music has been posting defamatory posts relating to his “contract” with the company on social media which have invited adverse comments specifically targeted at it. “Despite non-performance of his part of the agreement by Defendant No 1 (Bohemia) the plaintiff (Saga) is being subjected to disparagement and adverse comments which causes them irreparable harm in the music industry,” Sibal said.

The court also issued summons in the main lawsuit as well as the application for interim relief to the defendants and the matter is now listed on February 23.