Adaption of Religious Scriptures Entitled to Copyright Protection: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court recently said that original religious scriptures cannot be copyrighted for reproduction, but adaptations or dramatic works derived from them are eligible for copyright protection.

A single bench of Justice Pratibha M Singh was hearing a petition filed by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, founded by scholar and spiritual leader Srila Prabhupada, alleging copyright violations of their works by various websites, mobile applications, and social media accounts.

The court emphasized that piracy of the copyrighted works of the Plaintiff-Trust cannot be condoned, as it would significantly dilute the copyright in these works, resulting in substantial revenue losses for the Plaintiff-Trust.

In response, the High Court issued an ex-parte interim injunction, prohibiting the respondents from printing, reproducing, communicating, or disseminating any part of the Plaintiff’s works. Additionally, the court directed Google and Meta to remove the infringing mobile applications from their platforms and instructed authorities to block access to the infringing websites and other platforms.

The bench noted that while religious scriptures like the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita are considered public domain works, adaptations, interpretations, summaries, meanings, exegesis, audiovisual works, or dramatic works based on these scriptures would be entitled to copyright protection as they are considered original works created by the authors themselves.

The court clarified that reproducing the text of religious scriptures is permissible, but copyright would apply to the original parts of literary works that explain or teach the scripture in various ways.

The bench observed that the Defendants were providing complete reproductions of the Plaintiff’s works, authored by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, including translations, summaries, introductions, prefaces, and covers.

The court also noted that piracy had occurred in multiple languages in which the Plaintiff’s works are published. The matter has been scheduled for further hearing on March 12, 2024.