The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed Rajat Sharma, Editor-in-Chief of India TV, to submit a short affidavit, stating that the news channel will not broadcast the episodes of popular show ‘Aap Ki Adalat’ shot between 1992 to 1997, since they were produced by Zee.
Representing both Sharma and India TV before the Single-Judge Bench of Justice Jyoti Singh, Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi said that if, during the telecast of any other news, the interviews were referred to and some short clips of the programmes were shown, those too will be taken down, as and when pointed out by Zee.
The contempt application was filed by Zee Media, owner of news channels Zee News and Zee Hindustan, alleging copyright infringement by both Sharma and his news channel.
It said despite a clear undertaking by Sharma and India TV that the link to the interview with former Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has been taken down, the same was visible on platforms like YouTube.
Representing Zee, Senior Advocate Joy Basu contended that this link had been given in the suit, yet it continued to work for days despite the undertaking and that it was only when the contempt application was served that the same was taken down.
Sethi, however, argued that they had removed one link, but later it turned out that there were more. He added that after the matter was mentioned by Zee, the other link was also removed.
The Court then listed the case for further consideration on September 28.
Zee had argued in its application that during the political turmoil in Maharashtra on June 25 and 26, India TV had broadcast an episode of Aap Ki Adalat with Balasaheb Thackeray, which was originally produced and telecast by Zee TV in 1993.
The media house further sought an injunction against Sharma and India TV from broadcasting nearly 140 other episodes of the show, stating that it owned the copyright for the episodes of the show produced between 1992-1997, when Sharma was working with Zee.
Case title: Zee Media Corporation Ltd vs Rajat Sharma & Anr