Delhi High Court rules Bhojpuri singer Khesari Lal Yadav can only sell songs to Global Music Junction till September 30 2025

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday restrained Bhojpuri singer and actor Khesari Lal Yadav (alias Shatrughan Kumar) from engaging with any company except Global Music Junction Private Limited for monetising any of his new songs till September 30, 2025..A division bench of Justices Manmohan and Saurabh Banerjee, however, clarified that Yadav can continue to act, sing and dance in Bhojpuri film industry as well as on national TV channels, social media platforms, and on stages.However, he cannot sell his new songs to distributors, music companies, producers, etc. other than Global Music Junction, unless the music production company refuses to accept the delivery of the new songs, as per the Court's September 5 judgment. "This Court injuncts the Respondent No.1/ Defendant No.6 (Yadav) from engaging with any third person including Respondents No.2 to 5 and/ or Appellant/ Plaintiff’s (Global Music Junction) competitor for monetising of any new song till 30th September, 2025, except when the Appellant/ Plaintiff refuses to accept delivery of the said song subject to the Appellant/ Plaintiff proving its bona fides by depositing the balance fee (ie ₹2.20 crores) with the Registry of this Court,” the Court said..The Court passed the judgment while dealing with an appeal filed by Global Music challenging the order passed by a single-judge on October 14, 2022..Global Music and Khesari Lal Yadav had entered into a production agreement on May 27, 2021, for the creation and production of 200 songs within 30 months for a total consideration of ₹5 crores. Under the agreement, all intellectual property in the content/songs created vested with Global Music.Yadav also agreed to exclusively work with Global Music during the term of the agreement.Disputes arose between the parties and they entered into an addendum to the original agreement on February 7, 2022. With this, the term of the arrangement was then extended till September 30, 2025. The arrangement was made subject to further extension if the total number of songs delivered by Yadav was less than a hundred.The number of songs to be delivered was changed to eight songs per month during the modified term. The consideration payable was ₹2.50 lakh per song along with a 10% profit share to be paid on an annual basis. Yadav was also allowed to engage with third parties for the monetization of songs, subject to the ‘right of first refusal’ being granted in favour of Global Music..However, Global Music went to Court alleging that the actor/singer created content and allowed third parties to promote and monetise the same and therefore, infringed the copyright vested in them.Initially, the single-judge restrained Yadav and platforms like YouTube, Spotify, Jio Saavan, and Wynk from airing the songs. However, this order was vacated on 14 October, 2022..Global Music challenged the October 2022 order before the division bench. The division bench considered the case and held that Yadav's conduct in the case had been neither honest nor fair.It rejected his argument that he entered into the agreement under a misrepresentation since he is not well-versed in English.The Court also disagreed with the argument that if the negative covenant is enforced, Yadav would be rendered idle.“This Court is of the opinion that enforcing the negative covenant encapsulated in Clause 3.5 of the Addendum will neither compel him to exclusively work with the Appellant/ Plaintiff, nor result in ‘benching’ him or rendering him ‘idle’ or preventing him from practising his trade or profession as he will continue to act, sing, dance in the Bhojpuri Film Industry as well as on national TV channels, social media platforms and on stages," the Court said..The Court, therefore, concluded that Yadav cannot sell his new songs to third-party distributors or music companies till September 30, 2025..Senior Advocate Akhil Sibal along with advocates Yashvardhan, Rhia Marshall, Kritika Nagpal, Smita Kant, Tarun Bhushan, Pranay Mohan Govil, Priyanka Raj and Sanya Kumar represented Global Music Junction Private Limited.Advocates Pradeep Kumar Arya, Gaurav Chaudhry, Randhir Singh, Priyanshu Malik, Rahul Rana, Pulkit Chadha, Aditya Kumar Yadav, Raj Karan Sharma, Priyanshu Malik and Arpit Bamal appeared for Khesari Lal Yadav..[Read Judgment]