The Division Bench of the Delhi High Court, comprising Justice C. Hari Shankar and Justice Om Prakash Shukla, officially upheld a previous single-judge injunction, ruling in favor of music label Saregama India Limited regarding the classic track “En Iniya Pon Nilave” from the film ‘Moodu Pani’.
The legal battle intensified when the production house Vels Film International attempted to use a recreated version of the song in their movie Aghathiyaa, claiming they had legally obtained adaptation rights directly from Ilaiyaraaja.
However, the High Court clarified a crucial legal boundary regarding music ownership: while Ilaiyaraaja remains the absolute author and owner of the underlying “musical work” (the musical composition itself), he does not hold the copyright for the sound recording or the lyrical component of the track.
Because those recording rights were legally assigned to Saregama by the film’s original producer, the court ruled that the song could not be adapted or exploited without an explicit license from the music label, firmly halting the unauthorized recreation.