Zee sues Rajat Sharma, India TV for broadcasting Bal Thackeray interview

Zee Media, the owner of Zee News and Zee Hindustan, sued TV journalist Rajat Sharma and news channel India TV for copyright infringement. Zee said that India TV broadcast a 1993 episode of TV interview show 'Aap ki Adalat' with Bal Thackeray. That interview was originally produced by Zee Media, according to the report by Bar and Bench.

Rajat Sharma and India TV assured the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that the show has been removed from all platforms.

Sharma also assured Justice Jyoti Singh that the episode will not be broadcast in future as well.

Zee Media has filed the suit through Trust Legal’s partner Ritwika Nanda and associate partner Rupali Gupta. They are being led by Joy Basu. 

During the hearing, Justice Singh said that Rajat Sharma and India TV chose an opportune time to air the episode as the state of Maharashtra was witnessing a political turmoil, with the Maha Vikas Aghadi government on the verge of collapse.

“You timed it well… We all know why it happened. We understand the timing and the trigger. We all understand it,” the judge said.

Rajat Sharma was employed at Zee at the time when the interview happened. Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi said that when Rajat Sharma started his own channel, the deal with Zee was that Sharma would retain the format of the interview show and also the title in his new venture.

However, Zee argued that it owns the copyright for over 140 episodes of the show 'Aap ki Adalat' produced between 1992-1997. Hence, India TV can not broadcast those episodes on any of its platforms that aired on ZeeTV originally. 

The matter will now be heard on September 20.