Delhi HC Summons PTI Over ANI's Copyright Infringement Claims

The Delhi High Court has summoned the Press Trust of India (PTI) following allegations of copyright infringement and plagiarism levelled against them by Asian News International (ANI).

The court's action comes in response to ANI's accusation that PTI copied their videos depicting passengers on a Delhi-Darbhanga Spicejet flight enduring nearly an hour without air conditioning amid a severe heat wave on June 19.

ANI argued that both longer and shorter versions of the video footage were originally shot by their video team. These videos were subsequently sent to ANI’s feed and aired on their X account. However, PTI allegedly published identical videos without authorisation.

According to reports, ANI is seeking damages amounting to over Rs 2 crores and a permanent injunction to prevent PTI from publishing any further original works from ANI.

Justice Mini Pushkarna, presiding over the case has directed PTI to submit its response and scheduled the next hearing for August 9.

PTI's Response and Legal Standoff

Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao, representing PTI, assured the court that the news agency would take down the contested videos within 24 hours. However, ANI’s legal team, comprising Senior Advocate Chander M Lall and Advocate Sidhant Kumar, pushed for additional actions including an apology and clarification from PTI to news publications that credited the report to PTI.

“They must take down and acknowledge that it is my work. They must apologise. They must write to all the newspapers who published the report as PTI feed. PTI has been stealing my feeds,” Lall emphasised, as quoted as per reports.

In defence, Rao argued against the necessity for an apology, claiming the video in question was third-party content.

“There is no apology needed. There is something more that needs to be said here. We had said that it [the video] is third-party content,” Rao stated during the proceedings.

The next hearing on August 9 will likely provide clarity on the legal implications and outcomes of this case between PTI and ANI.