A legal update from Asha Audio: Supreme Court upholds the rights of the music companies to charge royalties to Radio Stations playing their music: Asha audio communiqué In a decision dated 3rd May, 2012, a bench of three judges of the Supreme Court overruled a Division Bench order of the Delhi High Court which had held that the Copyright Board had the power to grant interim compulsory licences under Section 31. Therefore this order means Radio Stations in particular (or any broadcasters for that matter) cannot play music without going into negotiation with the Music Companies who actually holds the rights of those music produced. Radio stations have long been attempting to secure interim compulsory licences from the Copyright Board, for sound recordings owned by PPL, SCIL etc. In 2010, recently there has been a case before the Bombay High Court where a radio station had attempted to get an interim CL from the Copyright Board by filing a suit for declaratory judgment before a district court. In that case the Bombay High Court ruled against the radio stations and upheld the decision of the district court that only the Copyright Board could decide matters under Section 31 of the Copyright Act. In the last two years there have been at least two cases before the Delhi High Court, including the present case which was ruled on by the Supreme Court. The reason for radio stations were trying to secure interim compulsory licences is the fact that the Copyright Board can take some time before delivering a final order. In the meanwhile, the radio stations will have to pay out the royalties demanded by music owners. And it has been seen that given the edge of the copyright board there can be a huge difference in the royalties demanded by music owners and the royalties fixed by the Board. In its judgment the Supreme Court disagrees with the Delhi High Court’s conclusion that the Copyright Board could grant interim CL even though the legislation was silent on this aspect. The Delhi High Court had ruled that since the Copyright Board could grant a CL, it would have the implied powers to grant all ancillary and interim reliefs. The Supreme Court however categorically stated that a Copyright Board could not grant interim relief unless the legislation specifically provided the Board with such a power. This will mean that till an amendment in the copyright bill itself comes in effect, the Radio Companies have to pay royalties as needed by the music owners