Delhi High Court: No Copyright on Scriptures, but Adaptations Eligible for Protection

Delhi High Court: No Copyright on Scriptures, but Adaptations Eligible for Protection

The Delhi High Court, while emphasising that copyright cannot be asserted over religious scriptures, has determined that adaptations of such materials, such as producing TV series or crafting dramatic works, are eligible for copyright protection.

Justice Prathiba M Singh made this remark in the context of a case involving a lawsuit filed by Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, established by the esteemed scholar and spiritual leader Srila Prabhupada.

The suit was directed against numerous websites, mobile applications, and social media accounts that were purportedly distributing the organisation's copyrighted works, including the Bhagavad Gita and other religious texts.

The Court clarified that claims to copyright over the Scriptures are not valid. However, any adaptations of these works, such as providing explanations, summaries, interpretations, or creating audiovisual content such as television series like Ramanand Sagar's Ramayana or B.R. Chopra's Mahabharata, as well as dramatic works developed by drama societies based on scriptural material, qualify as transformative works. Consequently, these adaptations are eligible for copyright protection as they represent original creations by their respective authors.

Furthermore, the Court asserted that there should be no objection to the direct reproduction of the text of the Bhagavad Gita or similar spiritual texts. It, however, also noted that since the interpretations of these texts by different gurus and spiritual teachers can vary significantly, copyright protection would apply to the original portions of literary works that expound, instruct, or elucidate the scripture.

It was argued that the works of Srila Prabhupada, who passed away in 1977, were accessible to the general public through several religious institutions and online platforms. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust earns royalties from the sale and commercial use of these works. However, the defendant entities were distributing the works without the trust's consent or authorisation.

Justice Singh, while acknowledging the widespread infringement in the reproduction of the plaintiff trust's copyrighted works, emphasised that because the author had established the Plaintiff Trust and had entrusted it with the management of the copyrights, reproducing these copyrighted works without the trust's authorisation, license, or permission was impermissible.

The Court noted that upon examining the evidence, it became evident that the books offered by Defendants 1 to 14 were exact replicas of the Plaintiff's works, originally authored by Srila Prabhupada. These reproductions included not only the original scriptures and verses (shlokas) but also included translations, interpretations, summaries, introductions, prefaces, covers, and other elements.

Hence, the Court issued a restraining order, preventing the defendants from publishing or distributing any portion of the trust's copyrighted content to the public, whether in printed form or audio-visual format. This restriction included websites, mobile applications, weblinks, and social media posts.

Additionally, the Court instructed Google LLC and Meta to remove the infringing mobile applications from their respective platforms. Furthermore, it directed Godaddy.com to promptly block and suspend the domain name or website ‘www.bhagavatam.in’.

Advocates Saikrishna Rajagopal, Deepshikha Sarkar, and Bhanu represented the plaintiff in the case. On the other side, advocates Debarshi Dutta, Mrinal Ojha, Anand Raja, Tanya Chaudhry, and Shivam Tiwari appeared as counsel for the defendants.