Sonu Nigam wins case against Mika Singh for defamation and infringement of personality rights

Facts of the case as alleged by Sonu: That for the Mirchi Music awards held in 2013, Mika Singh put up hoardings for his own publicity, which carried a large picture of Mika Singh along with smaller pictures of the other performers at the awards that included Himesh Reshammiya, Shreya Ghoshal and Ayushmann Khurrana. These hoardings also bore the logo of the Mirchi Music Awards and were made to appear to the public as hoardings put up to promote the awards. The official hoardings of the Mirchi Music Awards, put up across the city, were different from the hoardings put up by Mika Singh and OCP Music (a company whose only shareholders are Mika Singh and Daler Mehndi) through Bright Outdoor Media. The official hoardings of the Mirchi Music Awards also featured pictures of various artistes including Sonu Nigam and these were put up with the explicit permission and approval of Sonu. Sonu filed a case on Mika for unauthorised publishing of his image and infringing his personality rights, his performer's rights as well as his exclusive rights to publish and exploit his images. The suit also made a grievance regarding the defamatory nature of the hoardings put up by Mika Singh and OCP Music insofar as they contained a puffed-up image of Mika Singh and several times smaller images of the other artistes, giving an unjustified and incorrect impression to the public about the prominence and importance accorded to Mika at the awards as compared to the other artistes featured. Mika Singh and OCP Music paid substantial sums of money to Bright Outdoor Media to put up the hoardings and did so without the consent or permission of Sonu Nigam or any of the other artistes featured.

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The verdict: Since Mika did not initially submit his written statement in the Bombay High Court, he was asked to pay a penalty of `1 lakh. Thereafter, Mika was asked to remain in Court on April 23rd, 2014. However, on April 23rd, Mika Singh's advocates informed the Court that he could not remain present in Court since he had left for the United States for an awards function to be held in Florida. The Court then asked for Mika to be present in Court on April 25th, 2014. It was argued by Sonu's lawyers that Mika was, in fact, present in Mumbai on April 23rd and had left only on April 24th.

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The same could be seen from Mika Singh's Twitter account on which he had tweeted just prior to departing from Mumbai International Airport. The Court remarked that Mika Singh was in wilful breach of the orders of the Court and ought to be brought back and present himself in Court. Upon the repeated requests of Mika's advocates, the Court gave them time till April 26th to come up with a serious settlement proposal in relation to the quantum of damages and costs payable to Sonu on account of the blatant infringement of his image. On April 26th, 2014, the Bombay High Court passed an order decreeing the suit and granting to Sonu Nigam sweeping injunctions against Mika Singh and OCP Music, restraining them from directly or indirectly publishing the advertisement since the same violated Sonu Nigam's personality, image and civil rights, as well as restraining them from publishing, displaying or reproducing the advertisement, its artwork or any part of it either on hoardings or through Mika Singh's Twitter account. The Court also restrained Mika and OCP Music from, in any manner, infringing Sonu Nigam's performer's, personality, publicity and image rights including using Sonu's image in any manner whatsoever. In addition, the Court also imposed heavy costs of `10 lakh on Mika Singh. Sonu, however, indicated to the Court that he would like the amount of `10 lakhs to be donated to charitable institutions and nominated the Sona Sarovar Charitable Trust, Mumbai as one of the charities that he would like to donate a part of the said amount to.

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Implications of the verdict: Priyanka Khimani, the advocate representing Sonu Nigam in the case, said, "The verdict will help in protecting the rights of a person, especially celebrities or other recognisable persons, in their images and the use of these images without their consent or permission. It also protects the rights of a person in his or her personality and the exploitation of those rights, including through publishing of their image for the purpose of promotion or advertisement. The imposition of the heavy costs also ought to act as a deterrent to people seeking to use images of others in a bid to gain publicity or promotion for themselves." Prashant Panday, CEO, Radio Mirchi said, "Both Mika and Sonu are very senior members of the music fraternity and dear friends of Mirchi. We really don't have anything to say except that we hope the issue is sorted out amicably between these two doyens."

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