The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Plea against PDK dismissed

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Tuesday, Jul 28, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Plea against PDK dismissed

K.T. Sangameswaran

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday dismissed an application by the Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Institution (PSRPI) seeking an interim injunction restraining the Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) from infringing the copyright of the institution relating to ‘Kudiyarasu’, other scripts, books and publications.

E.V. Ramasamy (Periyar), who started the newspaper ‘Kudiyarasu,’ published various articles and write-ups covering political, economical and social aspects.

A suit was filed by the PSRPI after a Tamil bi-weekly in August last published an interview given by K. Ramakrishnan, PDK general secretary, in which it was stated that the institution never compiled the issues of ‘Kudiyarasu’ for the last 26 years. Therefore, they had obtained copies from the Thanjai Pagutharivu Kazhagam and were intending to publish them.

Along with the suit, the present application was filed seeking a temporary injunction to restrain the PDK. The court had earlier granted a status quo against the PDK. Subsequently, the order was granted against Mr. Ramakrishnan.

The PSRPI, represented by its secretary, K. Veeramani, contended that the applicant was formed as a registered society.

Since E.V. Ramasamy himself founded the society and endowed it with the property, all his writings that appeared in the newspaper would vest with the society.

In its counter, the PDK, represented by its president, T.S. Mani, submitted that the applicant could not claim any copyright as E.V. Ramasamy never assigned his copyright in favour of anyone.

In his order dismissing the application, Justice K. Chandru said the PSRPI had failed to establish any ownership of the copyright in its favour and a corresponding infringement of copyright by the PDK. Neither was there a prima facie case nor balance of convenience in favour of grant of any interim order or to continue the injunction order. The applicant had not made out a case.

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